When we really love it, we lend a little bit of ourselves, a little bit of our souls to the work that we do—to the art of nursing. If it is not us today, then it may be us tomorrow, and I hope that someone will be there to tell me what my view is like outside my window, too.

Doctor of nursing practice student Courtney Polimeni reflects on how the practice of nursing, including helping patients learn to cope with the tenuous nature of the human condition, is an art.

This essay placed first in the 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest and was published in the December 2023 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.