Important Holistic Nursing Core Value

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,

In nursing, many theories have emerged that highlight the role of nurses in health care. Of these, Henderson’s Definition of Nursing became influential as Virginia Henderson brought it to the forefront in her 1955 Textbook of the Principles and Practice of Nursing (Abrams, 2007, p. 382). Per Renece Waller-Wise (2013), Henderson’s Definition of Nursing is “primarily helping people (sick or well) in the performance of those activities contributing to health, or its recovery (or peaceful death) that they would perform unaided if they had the necessary strength, will, or knowledge” (p. 31). Waller-Wise (2013) also pinpointed that the aforesaid would be carried out in a manner that would promote gaining independence (p. 31). Therefore, this nursing process is geared towards “helping patients attain, retain, or regain optimum health” (Schmieding, 1990, p. 464). In order to make improved health possible, it requires understanding what the patient’s needs are (Abrams, 2007, p. 383). Once identified, the nurse can respond to the patient’s self-care deficit and work towards patient autonomy (Risjord, 2014, p. 36).

The nursing process does not merely treat the patient as a physical body, but rather treats the patient holistically. The central philosophy of Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory "is that all patients want to care for themselves, and they are able to recover more quickly and holistically by performing their own self-care as much as they're able" (Dorothea Orem, 2012, Nursing Theory). However, although self-care may be the core of Orem's theory, the decision to engage in self-care must be facilitated by the patient's social and physical environment, of which the family can play a critical role in shaping.

The profession of nursing requires a capacity and joy for caring and healing others both mentally and physically. Nurses spend their careers caring for patients and their families often in the worst and most frightening periods of their lives. Nursing responsibilities can be lengthy, stressful and physically and emotionally demanding. The demands of the nursing profession coupled with the nursing shortage and longer work hours put even more stress on nurses. Despite these extreme demands, many nurses do not fully appreciate the importance self-care. Yet without proper care for themselves, nurses are not able to provide the best care for their patients.

Developing my holistic nursing practice or looking at who I have become as a nurse today has been a journey that has helped defined who I am today. When I look back at when I originally became a nurse over 16 years ago, I am proud of who I have become. When I finished nursing school and began my job as a new nurse I thought I had all the tools to be the best nurse I could be. I understood the nursing process, I recognized the skills needed at the bedside to be a nurse, and I felt I had great nursing documentation skills. Soon I learned that wasn’t all of what I needed.

Holistic assessments in nursing provide a unique quality of care to the individual patient. Holism in the provision of care includes assessments obtaining data about the physiological, psychological, sociological, spiritual, developmental, cultural and environmental aspects. It is imperative that the nurse conducting these assessments adopts methods in the nursing process that reflects the standards outlined in Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse to ensure the health and wellbeing of the patient is maximized and maintained throughout the time health care is received. Nursing processes are directed at restoring overall harmony for the patient therefore an understanding of the

Self care is essential to the nursing profession because it is a reflection on the quality of health care nurses provide to their patients, it portrays an image to the patients on what’s necessary towards healthy living and can help nurses battle with stress and personal health. Self care can be expressed as taking care of ones self’s health and overall wellbeing. This can be shown through eating healthy, exercising daily, getting enough sleep and completing weekly activities to reduce stress. Improving your overall health can benefit nurses from overworking themselves and help minimize the affects certain stressors can have on them. By doing so, the overall atmosphere in the workplace and the quality of healthcare provided to the patients will be greatly improved.

The model is concerned with the provision and management of self-care. A requirement for nursing exists when a person is unable to maintain for him/herself self-care action which is therapeutic in sustaining life and health, recovering from disease and injury or coping with their effects. Meet own needs through nutrition, fitness, hygiene, rest and relaxation, interpersonal relationships, meaningful work, spiritual practices, prevention and health promotion practices

Before I became a registered nurse, I never really thought it would be this stressful and hard of work. Now as a 4 week brand new nurse to the medical surgical floor, I am exhausted by the end of my day shift. I was amazed after reading Maureen Iacono’s Nurses’ Self Care: A Question of Balance article regarding how nurse’s health is affected physically, personally, and mentally due to the lack of neglected self-care. As a result of insufficient self-care and the consequences of fatigue and mental tiredness of poor judgment can lead to dangerous patient bedside outcomes. Iacono explains how it is imperative to take certain measures of self-care such as eating healthier, take a vacation, prioritize sleep, and exercising in order to improve nurses’

My own health comes first; it is an example to others and must be reflected and tended to daily. Awareness is the first step in healing or change. My health includes striving for awareness of others and myself. It is important to remember that everyone is doing the best they can at any given moment. People can only do so much with the understanding, awareness, and knowledge they possess. Pattern reorganization can be uncomfortable and healing can be painful. We are all in a state of continual learning. Frustrations may be outwardly projected when disequilibrium is present. It is a nurse’s job to be mindful of this and continue providing supportive, quality

The Holistic Nursing Care standards are based on five core values: holistic philosophy and education; holistic ethics, theories and research; holistic nurse self-care; holistic communication, therapeutic environment and cultural competence; and holistic caring process. In my opinion, Holistic Nurse Self-Care ranks as the most important value that should be incorporated into the Holistic nurse’s practice. As a nurse, I feel that nurses have to take care of themselves in order to be able to take care of their patients and deliver high-quality care to them. Self-care and self-awareness are important to prevent nurse burnout which can lead to depression, anger, feelings of incompetence, difficulties in one’s home, absenteeism and staff

Dorothea Orem created the self-care theory in 1959 and continued to build upon her theory until 2001. The purpose of Orem’s theory was to define nursing, discuss the relationship among the nurse and the patient, and to promote a clear understanding of the scope of nursing (Taylor, Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing, 2006). Today, Orem’s theory is widely known and is utilized in nursing curriculum, as well as continuing education topics for healthcare providers.

The Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing impacts modern health as well as nursing more than expected during the theory’s creation and evolution. The Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2001) demanded the need for health care to shift from acute care setting management of disease. Consequently,

Orem’s Self-Care Theory lays the foundation to measure self-care maintenance, management, and confidence. The framework of Orem’s theory contributes an optimistic patient view to their own personal healthcare and the goal of nurses, and the independent function of their patients. The identification of nursing as a science and an art are identified as well as its boundaries, and serve as unique contributions to nursing. The research that Orem completed was designed to measure self-care deficits and the quality of life to help determine the correlation between both (Seed & Torkelson, 2012).

The self-care deficit theory, a part of the three-part theory proposed by Dorothea Orem (Parker, 1990), identifies that the role of nurse is to fill the deficit in self-care of patients (only when the patient is unable to fulfil the needs). The theory bases on the assumption that every human is able to take care of him/herself, and a nurses requirement comes only when this ability is affected and as per Sitzman & Eichelbergerm Orem’s theory mandates "The degree of nursing care and intervention depends on the degree to which the client is able (or unable) to meet self-care needs” (Sitzman & Eichelberger, 2011) (p. 96). Similarly, it also states that nurse’s responsibility was to help the patient