My Personal Philosophy Of Nursing

This paper explores the personal nursing philosophy I plan to convey in my personal career. This philosophy is going to be described in my own terms to explain what being a nurse means to me. I believe that there are a number of factors that are important to be successful in the nursing field. I believe that being a nurse it takes commitment to accountability, professionalism, and compassion for the ill. I will explain each one of these in my paper and what they mean to me.

This paper brings up my personal nursing philosophy that I am planning to deliver in my nursing career. I believe that nursing is more than merely as a profession, it also involves my medical knowledge combined it with a commitment to quality nursing care with compassion, respect, dignity, and advocacy for each patient. I believe that the interdisciplinary care and collaboration in the medical field are crucial elements that lead to a healthy relationship among healthcare professionals in promoting quality patient care that is individualized to each patient’s needs.

Nurses demonstrate the value of autonomy by acting on their own intuition daily to improve the quality of all aspects of human life. This is evident when a patient arrives into an urgent care center with an asthma attack. A prudent nurse will act autonomously by giving the patient a nebulizer treatment, place him on oxygen, or take the time to find out if there are standing orders and carry them out without a doctor’s order.

anything thrown your way, yet sympathetic enough to be understanding of it. There is so much

The development of a philosophy related to the profession of nursing is important in that it provides a framework for the nurse to base his/her work on. Philosophy is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means”. In other words, philosophies are based on beliefs and assumptions with an overall goal of obtaining an objective which states the nurse’s purpose in the profession. In my undergraduate nursing program I was exposed to multiple nursing concepts that guided my practice. Coupled with my ten years of experience in the nursing field, I was enabled to formulate my own framework or guide to nursing. The paradigm which resonates with me the most is the interactive-integrative perspective as it views practice “as having multiple, interrelated parts in relation to a specific context.” (Newman, Sime, & Corcoran-Perry, 1991, p.38). My framework includes three main components: the client, the professional nurse, and the nurse-client relationship.

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.

A nurse is given an opportunity to help patients, either if its by helping them through a very serious sickness or just helping a patient get to the bathroom on time, or a time when happiness is overfilling the room and a child is being born. Registered nurses provide a wide variety of patient care services (Mitchell, p.12). A Nurse must always know where to begin and where to stop, as any other career in the health field there is always something that cannot be done by everyone but only the certified person, a nurse must always remain inside her scope of practice to prevent any misunderstandings. A nurse must also follow a code of ethics , the code of ethics of the American Association of Medical Assistants states that a nurse should at all times render service with full respect and dignity of humanity, respect confidential information obtained by a patients file, uphold the honor and high principles the profession and accept its discipline, and last but not least always want to improve her services to better serve the health and well being of the community. (Mitchell, p.65).

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

I learned that as a nurse I must take the initiative to regulate my work environment and myself. As much as nurses are part of the larger healthcare team, they often function autonomously. I will need to keep my skills up to date and educate myself by reading current research articles and taking classes at work. I will need to be humble and open to constructive criticism from my fellow employees. I must do my best to be hard working, honest, and helpful both in the work place and my persona life. It’s irrational to think people can be completely honest in one area of their life, but not the rest. If I suffer from any sort of bias towards my patients for the choices

Following the appropriate ethics is of extreme importance in the nursing profession. “Ethics are of universal concern and crucial in all professional healthcare” (Gustafsson & Stenberg, 2017, p.420). The leading goal in nursing is to achieve patient-centered care. According to Arnold and Boggs (2016), “Patient centered care focuses on fully partnering with the client to provide care that incorporates his or her values and preferences to give safe, caring, compassionate and effective care” (p.25). In order to provide a well-grounded, caring environment, nurses need to be able to balance their personal differences with the ethical care standards they are obligated to provide patients (Gustafsson & Stenberg, 2017). Nurses spend the most time with patients; therefore, they eventually will develop a “sense of rightness” (Gustfasson & Stenberg, 2017, p.420).

My vision for myself as a nurse is that I will continue to grow and learn ways to be empathic. My desire is to always put my patient well being above my own. To live out my philosophy of nursing, every day I must remember that when I go to work it is not about me. It doesn’t matter what I am going through or what I am dealing with, when I step onto the

Professional values guide the decisions and actions we make in our careers. As nurses we are responsible for caring for patients during birth, death, illness and healing. If we are not aware of the decisions and actions to take it would be impossible to provide our patients with exceptional care. The values that are the foundation of the nursing profession are altruism, autonomy, human dignity, and social justice. In this paper I will define each value and describe their impact on nurses and nursing students.

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.

My love for nursing started as a young kid growing up and watching my aunt care passionately for the sick and the less privileged for many years. I somehow picked interest in the profession and that ultimately led me to choose nursing as a career. First I think in order to identify my personal nursing philosophy I have to define nursing. Although nursing can mean different things to different people, The American nursing association defined nursing as “the protection, 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” (ANA,2012). I believe that personal philosophy of nursing is important to the professional nurse and to me in particular because it demonstrates the principals and personal values that will be evident throughout my nursing career.

In the fall of 1862, a war raged between the union and confederate forces at the Battle of Antietam. More than 130,000 soldiers fought, more than 22,000 were wounded. On the battlefront was a woman, Ms. Clara Barton, nicknamed the “Angel of the Battlefield”. Ms. Barton observed the strain of frontline battle, namely hunger, sickness, and wounds and once said “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them”. (CITATION) It is this same dedication to nursing and our armed forces that drives my philosophy of nursing.