Past
Replaying a mistake, a difficult interaction, or the last room while trying to work in this one.
A Message From Your Mentor
Each theme begins with a short message connecting the lesson to real nursing practice and the person behind the professional role.
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Your mentor’s opening message is included in the full course.
What you will explore
By the end of this theme, you will be able to:
- Describe mindful presence in practical, nursing-specific language.
- Recognize when your attention has moved into replaying the past or anticipating the future.
- Use physical sensations as information that can bring you back to the present.
- Distinguish responding to what is happening from reacting to an assumption or emotional impulse.
- Explore AOLA’s guided mindful presence process for returning attention to what is happening now.
- Apply presence to listening, prioritization, patient connection, and safe follow-through.
The present moment
You can only respond to the moment you are actually in
The Power of Now is a major influence on this theme. Its author, Eckhart Tolle, is a spiritual teacher whose work centers on present-moment awareness: noticing when the mind is absorbed in what already happened or what might happen next, and bringing attention back to direct experience.
In nursing, that idea has a very practical application. The past may give you information. The future may require planning. But the assessment, conversation, medication check, handoff, or decision in front of you can only be handled now.
Future
Mentally carrying the next five tasks so intensely that you miss information available now.
Now
Noticing what is true in this moment, what your body is signaling, and what requires your attention first.
“The body is always in the present, even when the mind is replaying the past or anticipating the future.”
AOLA nurse-leader teaching
Nursing connection: Dr. Jean Watson, a nursing theorist and
founder of Human Caring Science, identifies authentic presence and attention
to another person’s inner experience as part of caring practice. Presence is
not separate from nursing care. It affects how care is received.
Presence in practice
Being in the room is not the same as being present
A present nurse listens to understand, notices verbal and nonverbal cues, connects the patient to the task, and closes the loop. Presence does not require moving slowly. You can move quickly without becoming careless.
Present and responsive
- Notices what the patient said and what changed while they were saying it
- Clarifies the immediate need before assuming
- Decides what must happen now and what can safely wait, be delegated, or be handed off
- Explains the next step and returns when promised—or updates the patient when the plan changes
Physically there, mentally elsewhere
- Hears words without taking in their meaning
- Responds to the expected problem instead of the actual concern
- Rushes because every task feels equally urgent
- Leaves the patient unsure about what will happen next
Nursing scenario
The task and the person
You enter a room focused on completing a scheduled medication pass. The patient says, “Something does not feel right today,” while looking away and holding the side rail. Your mind immediately lists the other patients and tasks waiting for you.
Continue the experience
Your preview pauses here
You have experienced the opening portion of Mindful Presence: present-moment awareness, its connection to clinical practice, and the difference between being physically present and being fully responsive. The complete theme continues with AOLA’s mindful presence process, guided application, and a personal presence practice.
Interested in the complete course?
Mindful Presence is one of six connected themes in the AOLA Mindfulness & Resilience Course. AOLA nurses complete all six themes as part of the Prepare phase of the AOLA Workforce Integration Model™. Hospitals, nursing schools, nurse leaders, and prospective pilot partners are invited to sign up to participate in AOLA’s EBP project.
Sign up for the EBP project© 2026 AOLA Healthcare. All rights reserved. This preview and its original instructional content may not be reproduced, distributed, adapted, taught, or used commercially without written permission from AOLA Healthcare.