Plato and Heidegger are two historical philosophers whose philosophies have served as the foundation for nursing research, education and practice. The ideals and teachings of both philosophers have proven to be useful in advanced professional nursing. From Plato’s influence on Florence Nightingale, to the Hermeneutic circle of Heidegger’s phenomenology, both philosophers have had significant influence on nursing that remains relevant to advanced professional nursing.
Plato. Plato was a student of Socrates, the teacher of Aristotle, and is the most recognized Realist philosopher (Meinwald, 2017). Platonic Realism is the view that universals exist. A universal is a property of an object, and can exist in more than one place at the same time. Universals are considered to be ideal Forms.
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Martin Heidegger is a widely recognized German positivist philosopher (Heidegger 1927/2011). Heideggerian phenomenology explores ‘the being’ as understood through lived experience. Heidegger focused on ‘Dasein,’ or, ‘the mode of being human.’ Heidegger believed understanding is a basic form of human existence. One of the essential goals of Heideggerian phenomenology is to uncover the meaning of everyday ordinary human existence. Everyday ordinary existence is where the meaning of that existence resides. Understanding is not a way we know the world, rather, understanding is the way we are. Heideggerian phenomenology is existential and ontological in nature, and asks, ‘What does it mean to be a person?’ Heidegger views a person as a self-interpreting being. A person exists as a ‘being’ that is a part of the world in which they exist. Heidegger focused on the human being’s existence in their world as an individual and within their social context. Heidegger viewed both world and being as inseparable. Heidegger argues against a presuppositionless approach to phenomenology, and asserts that interpretation can only make explicit what is already
“Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, n.d.). The purpose of this paper is to expand my nursing philosophy as I transition into an Advanced Practice Nurse.
I define my philosophy of nursing within the three nursing domains of person, health, and environment. My goal is to communicate the importance of nursing as a knowledge-based career, depending not only on the nurse fulfilling her role but also on the patient’s compliance. A patient must learn to provide self-care at home in the same capacity as the nurse would provide care in the clinical setting. I discuss various subjects within nursing. I explain why I want to be a nurse, what I believe a nurse’s role is, the different domains of nursing, and where I believe nursing will be in the future. My philosophy demonstrates the interdependence of the nursing domains. You cannot fully evaluate a person without evaluating their health,
Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.
The purpose of this assignment is to enable the student, myself, to rediscover his or her personal philosophy of nursing as it exists upon the completion of the baccalaureate nursing program. Throughout the semesters, the view I had on what nursing meant to me has grown deeper, but one thing has stayed the same; my philosophy. In my philosophy project from the very first semester, I stated that nursing involves many different parts that all come together to make one great final end product, just like cookies. I compared nursing parts and all the different items nurses bring into the field, to being similar to the ingredients used to make cookies. I still believe that nursing is comprised of many different parts that all come together in order to give the best patient care possible. The personal philosophy paper now is an extension on that first semester’s assignment, to show the growth and development I have had while in this nursing program. It will explore what my personal definition of nursing is, the purpose of nursing, what assumptions in nursing there are, and will conclude with the principles of nursing.
Nursing as a profession is an incredibly varied field, with as many opinions on how and why as there are nurses. It is therefore incumbent on each nurse to determine what aspects of nursing research and history will influence her practice. This work is presented as a Professional Nursing Mission Statement for the author. In the following pages, the governing bodies, ethical code, professional traits, nursing theorist and theory, and historical figure that guide personal nursing practice are presented with scenarios demonstrating their effects. Providing the building blocks for an individual approach to nursing will result in a deeper understanding of practice.
Plato was a philosopher who was born in Athens (470-390 BCE), and was also a student of Socrates. He felt that intelligence and one’s perception belonged to completely independent realms or realities. He believed that general concepts of knowledge were predestined, or placed in the soul before birth even occurred in living things. Plato believed that the cosmos was intelligible, and the the universe was mathematically understandable. He believes that mathematical objects could be seen as perfect forms. Forms, a doctoral of Plato, can be understood as an everyday object or idea, which does not, exists in the everyday realm, but merely is existent in the hypothetical realm or reality.
those artifacts” (Republic, pg. 262). Often time’s people may have ideas of what is the truth but are limited by what they know or the ideas they have. Plato is a realist because he asks questions instead of just accepting things the way that they are but he bases those questions on what is reality.
Without nursing history, nursing would not be the same. For example, Nightingale’s thirteen tenets set the basis of nursing. All these tenets become apparent while promoting health, preventing illness, and while providing care for clients. Additionally, Carper’s four fundamental ways of knowing allows us, as nurses, to think critically, provide holistic care (also apart of Waton’s theory), build therapeutic relationships, follow the code of ethics, and also encourage us to extrapolate data effectively. Nonetheless, Paterson and Zderad, as well as Leininger, set the foundation for nurses to care for each client as their own, using a humanistic, existentialistic, and culturally sensitive approach. Generally, each of these theories allow nurses to acquire new knowledge and skills, altering thoughts and emotions, ultimately enabling us to apply our newfound knowledge into real life situations, which will prove useful in clinical placements next
The purpose of this paper is to discuss my personal beliefs pertaining to the profession of nursing. As well I will discuss the (4) metaparadigms in nursing which are known as; human beings, environment, health, and nursing, and my personal beliefs on these concepts and how they have similarities to the nursing philosophy of a nursing theorist.
Nursing philosophy provides a broad multitude of perspectives that enable us to find meaning, further our understanding related to the human experience, and explore how our knowledge, beliefs, values, and attributes shape and guide the care we provide to individuals, families, and communities (Butts & Rich, 2015). The origins and development of nursing philosophy began with the essential need to further our understanding of complex phenomena such as caring, and other concepts that empirics alone could not explain. The early years of nursing were filled with negative societal perceptions of women with no formal
Each professional discipline has a responsibility to identify concepts that provide a general description of the discipline. It is these concepts that comprise the profession’s metaparadigm (Fawcett, 1984). Much of the philosophy and theory of nursing stems from the work of Florence Nightingale. The diaries, letters, and books that she left behind containing her statements and beliefs have been fundamental to the development of the concepts comprising the nursing metaparadigm (Selanders, 2010). Fawcett’s (1984) stated there was a general consensus among scholars that the concepts of nursing were person, environment, health, and nursing.
Florence Nightingale’s vision of nursing in the mid-1800s began an evolution of nursing philosophies and theories that encouraged the progression and development of nursing knowledge, quality of care, and the advancement of nursing from a vocation to an academic discipline and profession (Alligood, 2013, pp. 3-7). As nursing knowledge and theory flourished, it became necessary to structure nursing theories into an integrated system. Jacqueline Fawcett’s proposal of four global nursing concepts “as a nursing metaparadigm served as an organizing structure for existing nursing frame-works and introduced a way of organizing individual theoretical works in a meaningful structure” (Alligood, 2013, p. 4). The four concepts of the metaparadigm of nursing include: person, environment, health, and nursing. By understanding the history of nursing development and the metaparadigm of nursing, one can explore this author’s personal philosophy of nursing in respect to the four concepts of the metaparadigm of nursing.
Throughout the history of nursing, there have been many nursing theorists who have each made significant contributions towards the shaping of nursing knowledge. Each of these theorists have differing perspectives and interpretations of how each domain of the nursing metaparadigm fit into their respective theories. The four domains of the nursing metaparadigm are: person, environment, health and illness, and nursing. The purpose of this reflection is to provide an overview of the domains related to the metaparadigm of nursing as well as to introduce this author’s perspective on their developing personal philosophy of nursing. In this paper, the author will take a closer look at each of these areas, how they are individually defined, and how they each fit into the nursing metaparadigm as a whole. At the conclusion of this overview, readers will be introduced to how these theorists and their perspectives have enabled this author to begin to create their own philosophy of nursing.
The profession of nursing has matured from the time of Florence Nightingale. Nursing has gone from just treating dying soldiers on the battlefield to helping guide people through their entire lives from birth to death. The maturation of nursing has led to changes in nursing philosophy and allowed for practitioners of Nursing to meld these philosophies together to form their own philosophy. In this paper I will explain my philosophy of nursing and compare it to Virginia Henderson 's definition of nursing along with discussing some of the changes to Nurse philosophy I will also discuss some of the difficulties to being a patient advocate.
Plato is regarded by many experts as the first writer of political philosophy. He fashioned a distinctive view of human nature, a view that has had a crucial formative influence on all subsequent theories of human nature. Plato pointed out the distinction between a perfect ideal and its imperfect replicas, and gave the name