Philosophy And Nursing Theories

A theory is defined as “a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena (Merriam-Webster, 2017). In the nursing field, nursing theories have helped shape philosophies of many nurses in our history, as well as modern day. Every nurse, near and far, could probably tell you who Florence Nightingale was. She was a pioneer for women in nursing and made countless contributions to our field. Her nursing philosophy was based on Environmental Theory, “A belief that a person’s surroundings such as clean air, water,

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.

Nursing theories have been a fundamental tool used to explain, guide and improve the practice of nursing. Theorists have contributed enormously to the growth of nursing as a profession. The four grand theorists I chose are Virginia Henderson, Peplau, Myra Levine and Jean Watson. These theorists have contributed tremendously in the field of nursing through their theories, and research. One thing the theorists have in common is that they are patient centered. They are all concerned on ways we can improve our responsibility to the patients, their families and the environment. They have different ideas but they are all aiming towards achieving the same goal, which is patient satisfaction and safety. Their differences are in their areas of

According to Barbara Caper as cited in Chinn and Kramer (2011, p 1), people generally develop the knowledge about based on what’s they belief or valued in that. Therefore, the personal valued is the key creating or generating the knowledge. Similarly to nursing perspective which it based on nursing philosophical lens is the key to develop theory of nursing sciences. In other words, philosophy in nursing reflects nursing-knowing of perceiving or understanding in a particular phenomenon and expresses or communicates it as the knowledge to others in many forms including the theory of nursing sciences (Chinn & Kramer, 2011; Meleis, 2012).

Philosophy of nursing is an intricate framework based on the nurse’s views, ideas, practice, beliefs, and ethics that give guidance and meaning to the care, treatment, and research of the nursing profession. (What is a Philosophy of Nursing, n.d.) “Most would agree then that nursing is increasingly recognized as a ‘multi-paradigm discipline’” (Powers & Knapp, 2011, p. 129).

To ensure that the knowledge translation occurs and sustains is sophisticated and challenging for all healthcare providers. According to McIntyre and McDonald (2013) stated that “philosophical inquiry does not lead to one correct answer but enables the articulation of various views of knowledge and therefore of nursing practice” (McIntyre & McDonald, 2013). Therefore, the evidenced-based or research inquiry ones always have the philosophy paradigms underlined the researchers idea. In my view, I believe that all nurses integrate a philosophical belief system daily even though they may not recognize it. Consequently, integrating between philosophy and research of nursing practice may be the high lightening ways to bridge the knowledge- to- action gap, particularly not only for creation nursing knowledge, but also for translation knowledge into clinical practices.

1. How does describing one’s philosophy of nursing influence a nurse’s practice? What if a nurse has never thought about a philosophy? I believe describing one’s philosophy of nursing influences a nurse’s practice because it gives a nurse an understanding what his or her beliefs and values are based on the foundation of beliefs about people, environment, health, and nursing. Also, it is important to make sure those beliefs are in line with deeply held beliefs.

Philosophy is a set of ideas, values, and beliefs behind what a person does (Merriam- Webster Dictionary, 2015). All nurses have beliefs about what nursing is and is not. It is important to stay true to one’s personal, moral, and ethical values at all times. Nurses are morally and ethically responsible for their patients, decisions, and actions (Lindh, Barbosa, Berg, & Severinsson, 2010). Every nurse brings something different to healthcare because they have different philosophies and/or believe in different nursing theories that guide their practice.

In order to explore my philosophy it is important that I be aware of how I would define nursing. “Definitions of nursing, like nursing itself, are dynamic; nursing is constantly evolving to meet new needs and take account of new knowledge.”(Clark, 2003, add p. # for direct quote)

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.

Overall, after reading through the four article it is obvious the influence of philosophy on knowledge development in nursing is great. As above there has been several examples to show the influence. I believe philosophy has deep roots in nursing as far back as Florence Nightingale and her environmental theory. I also believe that as our population grows, along with the increase diversity, that nursing philosophy with grow and change with the world’s needs.

Nursing goes beyond caring for a patient during their illness and managing their disease process. Nursing includes adapting to a patient’s and their family’s physical, social, spiritual, environmental and psychological needs. I believe in treating the whole patient and being supportive of the family’s needs as well. Shelly & Miller (2006) asserts “while critical thinking, decision-making, and leadership skills are extremely important, the characteristics nurses need most are compassion, competence, faith, integrity and responsibility” (p. 291).

A philosophy is created to find truth and meaning. It requires evaluation and use of critical thinking as to why one’s nursing practice matters. The history of philosophy and theories allows me to evaluate my personal nursing philosophy. I believe that each person is their own individual. My way of practicing nursing is by using compassion, listening to my patients and trying to understand them. It is not just the body or the disease but rather the holistic nature of the patient. I believe that nursing deals with promotion of health and prevention of disease. Lifelong education, research and evidence based practice are all utilized in my profession of nursing and are all concepts important to my nursing care.

Developing a personal philosophy of nursing and patient care is essential to the development of every nurse. The development of a personal philosophy begins in nursing school. Nurses incorporate our personal beliefs within our nursing practice and as we grow and mature as nurses and human beings our philosophy changes. Exposure to new beliefs, cultural differences, and researching the views of a variety of nursing theorists assist nurses in developing an expanding their own philosophy with the culture of care.

Philosophy has influenced the development of nursing. Philosophy of Nursing promotes the application of nursing knowledge and helps develop nursing theory and knowledge. Nursing theories and philosophies of nursing influence each other. Nurses designed Philosophy of nursing to explain the beliefs, role, and interaction with patients. Philosophy is the application of one 's knowledge to different situations that occurs when practicing as a nurse. It changes the identities, belief systems, and practices of nurses. Philosophies and experiences guide nurses in their professional decision making. (Marchuk, 2014). To be able to articulate a personal philosophy of nursing and identify the philosophical influences, nurses must have basic understanding past contribution to the theories and philosophies that have helped shaped nursing today. Knowledge development and different methods have played a huge part in nursing 's history.