Title:Georgetown nursing students discover the healing power of presence

Each spring, Berkley School of Nursing (BSON) students travel to France, carrying with them the clinical knowledge they have acquired in the classroom. What they discover there is something harder to teach: that some of the most meaningful moments nursing begin when there is nothing left to diagnose, prescribe, or cure.

At the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, millions of pilgrims from around the world come seeking healing, comfort, and hope. More than 7,000 cases of healing have been reported at the sanctuary since 1858 when the first documented cases began.

Georgetown’s Berkley School of Nursing students join pilgrims not simply as observers, but as caregivers. Students help pilgrims at the sanctuary’s baths, listen to their stories, and witness their faith.

While at Lourdes, nursing students are grouped in different immersion bays, private areas where pilgrims experience the healing waters. Students work in small teams with other volunteers to provide compassion and care to those seeking spiritual, emotional, or physical healing. In those quiet encounters, students experience a different dimension of their vocation. They learn that healing does not always mean curing, and that caring for a patient means recognizing the person beyond the illness: their fears and hopes, their relationships, their dignity, and their spiritual lives.

It is an experience rooted in one of Georgetown’s fundamental values: cura personalis, or care for the whole person.

A different kind of healing

At Lourdes, students work alongside volunteers from around the world, often overcoming differences in language and culture to care for pilgrims who have traveled great distances in faith and hope. Students assist pilgrims at the sanctuary’s baths and guide them through the gestures associated with Saint Bernadette Soubirous such as washing their faces, washing their hands, and drinking the water from the spring she uncovered after being directed there by the Virgin Mary.

In these encounters, students witness vulnerability, courage, faith, and sometimes overwhelming emotion. They also learn the power of being fully present with another person.
Nursing professors Sarah Vittone and Edilma Yearwood, who accompany the students to France, believe the trip emphasizes the importance of spirituality in health care.

“Lourdes really helps expose students to the importance of holistic care,” says Yearwood, professor of nursing and program director of the Ph.D. in nursing program. “It’s the presence, it’s the connection, and it’s the attention to the broad range of things that people need. It’s a different kind of treatment, and that’s what we help the students understand.”

“Spiritual care, from a nursing perspective, is under-recognized and underappreciated as a specific skillset for nurses,” adds Vittone, an associate professor at BSON who helps prepare students for their Lourdes experience focusing on personal growth and virtue-based professional formation, discernment, service as leaders, and self-care.

“Our relationship with patients is crucial. Tapping into spiritual care is one way nurses help people find hope and comfort. Students may continue to carry these experiences into their careers, helping each patient according to their need,” says Vittone.

This experiential learning trip allows students to gain a deeper perspective on what it means to provide holistic care. Madison Walter (N’28), a nursing student who completed the program, recalls a deeply moving experience she had during one of her last shifts working in the baths.

“As the only English-speaking volunteer in my team, I guided all English-speaking pilgrims through the immersion,” says Walter. “I was nervous because this role is usually reserved for more experienced volunteers; however, it allowed me to fully engage with the pilgrims. I was moved watching their strong faith and emotion as they bathed. I will carry the personal and spiritual development I learned in Lourdes into my future nursing career.”

Modeling a way of care

This experience is part of the Lourdes Magis Immersion Program, a partnership between the Office of Mission & Ministry and the BSON.

For Father Mark Bosco, S.J., vice president of Mission & Ministry, Lourdes provides an ideal setting for students to experience the connection between Georgetown’s Jesuit identity and their vocation as nurses.

“I started this trip at a different Jesuit university, but when I got to Georgetown, I wanted to do the same for students at our Berkley School of Nursing,” Bosco says Bosco, S.J. “Lourdes models a way of care that engages patients and people. That’s great for nursing students to learn.”

A legacy of caring

For Fran Buckley (N’78, Parent’08, ’12), a Georgetown alumna and parent who is also a member of the BSON’s Dean’s Advisory Board, supporting the Lourdes Magis Program is deeply personal.

Buckley first learned about the program in 2018, shortly after the death of her mother. She was searching for a meaningful way to honor her—a woman whose faith had been an important part of her life and took enormous pride in her daughter’s Georgetown education. Buckley’s nursing education had given her knowledge and skills that proved invaluable as she helped care for her mother later in life. Lourdes brought together those pieces of their story: faith, Georgetown, nursing, and the profound privilege of caring for someone you love.

Buckley directed memorial gifts made in her mother’s honor to the Lourdes Magis Program. What began as a tribute soon became an enduring commitment.

“My mother was a woman of deep faith, and she was so proud that I had gone to Georgetown and become a nurse,” says Buckley. “Toward the end of her life, I was able to use my nursing knowledge to help care for her, and that meant so much to both of us. After she died, I wanted to honor her in a way that brought together her faith, her love of Georgetown, and the importance nursing had played in our lives. When I learned about the Lourdes Magis Program, I knew immediately that I had found it.”

Together with her cousin Nancy Joyce (SLL’74), Buckley has ensured ongoing support of the Lourdes Magis program. They take pride in helping make this trip possible for Georgetown nursing students.

“I believe deeply in the Lourdes Magis Program’s mission, and the transformative experience it offers students,” says Buckley. “There is no better investment than helping future nurses learn that healing is about more than medicine. Sometimes you cannot cure someone, but you can always care for them. You can listen, comfort, be present, and help them feel that they are not alone. That is cura personalis, and to me, that is Georgetown nursing at its very best.”

Ongoing impact

This hands-on learning opportunity continues to help students excel in nursing, leaving a lasting impact on their personal and professional lives. The program also offers course credit for participants, as students and professors meet over the course of the semester to prepare for their work at Lourdes.

Among the Georgetown students visiting Lourdes, five were Conway Scholars, recipients of loan-relieving scholarships made possible by a $1 million commitment over four years from the Bedford Falls Foundation, a private foundation established by the Carlyle Group co-founder and co-chairman William “Bill” E. Conway, Jr., and his late wife, Joanne Barkett Conway.

Students may not remember every detail of their days in Lourdes, but they will remember the pilgrims they encountered and the power of a hand held, a prayer shared, a quiet moment of presence, or the dignity of caring for another human being at a vulnerable time.
“Going on this trip was truly eye-opening,” says Sophie Cohen (N’28), a nursing student and Conway Scholar. “The sense of community was so strong, and getting to meet and help people from all over the world was such a great experience.”