My Nursing Philosophy Of Nursing

“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.

Every individual typically holds a personal philosophy about life which includes beliefs and values that help shape our choices and lead us to specific life path or in a certain direction. Very similarly every nurse has a philosophy about nursing and their career. Every nurse has guidelines that they choose to follow and motives for why certain choices are made. In order to develop a philosophy of nursing a nurse must reflect on the characteristics that they abide by and by which they base their nursing care. A nursing philosophy defines the motives behind why the nurse puts their heart and soul into their career. A personal nursing philosophy produces an individual viewpoint for nursing care, research, and education (Hood, 2014). In order to have a personal philosophy or a nursing philosophy, a nurse needs to understand themselves. Not one philosophy is permanent, right, or wrong and a personal philosophy is subject to change at any time (Hood, 2014).

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.

In order to decide on an accurate and well-described definition of what nursing is I sought multiple sources and decided upon two that I feel are representative of nursing. The American Nurses Association (ANA, 2015) declares, “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.” As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015)

Nursing is based on caring in nursing. Compassion and concern for protecting and enhancing the

My nursing philosophy is rooted in the desire to give and selflessly serve those in need. I believe that nursing is not about treating a health

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”. (Proverbs 17:22). This quotation has always been my driving force in life and my approach to nursing. This paper aims at talking about my personal philosophy of nursing; a profession I am looking forward to. First, I will base my personal philosophy of nursing on four of the nursing theorists who have added more meaning to my understanding and appreciation of the profession. I will equally mention the driving philosophy of the Santa Fe Community College Nursing Department.

The profession of nursing is often looked at as taking care of sick people or treating physical well-being. Many do not realize that nursing encompasses so much more than that. It is very important to me to have a positive attitude that transfers to my coworkers and patients. I want to be committed to helping those in need and desire to be able to be a confident health educator. I think it is very important to use the knowledge I have in my area of expertise to instruct others where it is needed. I would like to be able to say I gave the highest quality of care that I could at the end of each day. I realize that not everything will always be perfect or smooth, and there is only so much I can do. However, many of the rough patches can be eased with hard work and a good outlook. I want to be able to form great relationships with my colleagues as well as the client and facilitate everyone working together. Nursing is a respectable profession and I hope to contribute my own compassion to the entire community.

When my grandmother was dying of cancer in hospice, I had no intentions of becoming a nurse. Consistently, I repositioned her because she was in pain. Dutifully, I opened her windows because she loved the sunlight. Respectfully, I rubbed lotion on her skin because it made her comfortable. Devotedly, I prayed with her because her faith was strong, and she was ready to be reunited with my grandfather. Wistfully, I held her hand as she took her last breath, and told her it was okay to go. Afterwards, when the hospice nurses had told me that I would make a great nurse and I should consider nursing as a career, I politely said “No, thank you, nursing is not for me.”

A nursing philosophy is the thoughts and beliefs about the job of a nurse based on one’s values. My values that have formed over the years have influenced me to purse a forever career as a nurse. I grew up in a small town Smithfield, Pennsylvania with my parents and younger brother. My community consisted of close relationships between the residents. Every one helped and cared for one another when needed. The practices of my community guided me to want to become a nurse. I want to continue to care for my community and give back to them by treating their illnesses and providing them with better health care. I am particularly interested in caring for pediatric patients. My goal is to try to provide every infant a chance to live their beautiful life created for them by God. While doing this, the primary focus of being a nurse will be to accommodate my patients and allow them to become a healthy person again.

The greatest aspect about nursing is that it is never going to be just a job and is even more than a merely profession. Instead, it is a belief system or way of life and not a discipline that can simply be practiced then abandoned to the dictates of a time clock. To simply say that “I love people” or want to “help people get better” does not demonstrate the drive behind this feeling. Articulating my philosophy is not an easy task, to better explain my philosophy of nursing, I am going to use some values that I have learned. These tools truly explain how I feel and what has motivated me to pursue nursing as a career.

My philosophy of nursing is something that I will stand by throughout my nursing career. My philosophy is based upon providing proficient, compassionate, and holistic care to my patients. Growing up in Liberia, I have always known that I was meant to be a nurse. As a child, I loved helping people in need, and being there for others. Nursing is a career where I can utilize both, and I am passionate about this field of work. My mission as a nurse is to provide help to those in need regardless of their gender, religion, race, ethnicity, or financial status.

To understand nursing philosophy, you must first understand what nursing means to you as an individual. To me nursing as well as nursing philosophy involves providing individualized holistic care to a patient, family, community, or even one’s own self. Holistic care is providing care involving the mind, body, spirit, and environment.

Philosophy of Nursing Nursing is all about saving lives and making your patient feel better and comfortable by every means. Nursing practice includes direct and indirect care, prevent treatment of disease and illness, management of symptoms, and promotion of health and well being of individual, families, groups, communities, and populations. Nurses can also provide comfort, compassion, and caring without even prescription. Every individual has different needs and belief when it comes health and sickness.

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.