Teaching the abyss: living the art-science of nursing

This column addresses how nurse educators can provide the teaching-learning experiences for novice nurses to develop the leadership competence to effectively practice nursing in an extremely demanding healthcare environment. The authors delve into Mitchell and Bunkers' use of the metaphor of an abyss to explore the lived experience of risking being with others in extremely intense interpersonal situations. Using reflection, students' journal narratives affirm connections made among past experiences and the new knowledge gleaned from exploring and naming the phenomenon of the abyss. Several teaching-learning strategies are offered as ways for addressing the leadership issues related to dealing with intense relational experiences in nursing practice, including exploring nurse theorist Rosemarie Rizzo Parse's essentials of leadership.