A philosophy is a statement of values and beliefs to help guide one through their career. A personal philosophy should mirror the views of the individual and help shape their work to coincide with their personal values and beliefs (Marquis & Huston, 2015). Nursing is a unique career that makes nurses examine themselves and their own life in order to provide the best care for all patients. It is important for a nurse to realize their own beliefs and learn how to incorporate them into their care in order to create a career for themselves they can be proud of. Personally, the student nurses’ values and beliefs stem her church’s mission statement “love God and love others”. The student nurse strives to live her life based on that statement …show more content…
Over the past three semesters, the student nurse believes she has gotten stronger in both her personal and professional values and beliefs. She has learned that both personal and professional values will evolve over time. The student nurse feels as if combining her personal and professional values will continue to aid in developing her philosophy. The student nurse has a personal definition of nursing as collaboratively caring of all individuals in a holistic manner, focusing on the prevention of illness and injury, diagnosis of symptoms, treatment of condition, and promotion of health and wellness. Nursing from a practical stance can be defined as the act of assessing a patient, diagnosis of the patient, providing patient outcomes, identification of a treatment plan, implementation of a plan, and evaluation of the plan. Anyone with a set of skills can practice the act of nursing, but it takes a special person to actually be a nurse. A nurse should be invested in the patient, be an advocate for the patient, and above all be caring towards the patient. A patient will surely not remember which nurse gave the best shot, but they will remember which nurse was the most caring. Nursing is more than administering medications and performing skills, but rather it is an art of knowledge and critical thinking combined with compassion and care.
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.
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.
A nurse is so much more than someone who administers medication, performs physical examinations, and establishes treatment plans. Nurses do not just listen to their patients needs, they advocate for them. They do not just take care of the suffering and ill, they have empathy for them. They do not just treat injuries and wounds, they heal the mind body and spirit. Being a nurse is not just a job title, it is an identity. It involves many core concepts and incorporates many values and beliefs. Being a nurse includes the concepts professionalism and patient and family - centered care. Both in which relate to the Benedictine values of the College of St. Scholastica.
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).
When it comes to a nursing philosophy, every nurse has their own values, beliefs, and ideals that are different and unique from others. It presents a great challenge when incorporating these ideas into a professional practice. “Professional values are standards for actions accepted by the practitioner and professional group that provide a framework influencing the behavior of the group.” (“Professional Values: The Case for RN-BSN Completion Education,” 2008, p.1). Identifying which values are most important will have a huge
“Philosophies of nursing are statements of beliefs about nursing and expressions of values in nursing that are used as bases for thinking and acting. Most philosophies are built on a foundation of beliefs about people, environment, health, and nursing” (Chitty & Black, p. 298). By using person, environment, health, and nursing as a guideline to achieve the ultimate goals of nursing; I will discuss my personal philosophy and how these factors are used in nursing.
As I prepare for my first classes in nursing school, I recognize my unique position to examine the values that I will bring into my nursing career. Without any experience, my values remain relatively unshaped regarding healthcare. In contrast, the values of nurses who have already accumulated a variety of experiences tend to be more nuanced and informed. For this exercise, I met with one of these experienced nurses—CC, a cardiac-catheterization laboratory nurse who just welcomed her third child. Together, CC and I explored the differences in our upbringings, how we were each sucked into nursing, and how our values have changed throughout different life experiences. Above all, I intended to delve into the story of her fifteen-year career in order to discover how an experienced nurse philosophizes patient care.
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.
Everyone’s values and beliefs about the profession of nursing are all different. The four concepts of nursing are interrelated and all mean something different to every person, too. Throughout this paper, I will be reflecting on my values and beliefs about nursing through the four concepts while comparing them to a nursing theorist with views that are most similar to my own.
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 conclusion, I feel that the philosophy of nursing is a combination of core values, and beliefs that teaches us to treat each human being with the respect, compassion, dignity, and uniqueness, regardless of disease, social or economic status, or race that they deserve. My focus with each patient will be to allow them to have the right to be involved in the decision making of their care as well as allowing their family members to be involved in the decision making. I will maintain my beliefs and values by treating every patient, or coworker with respect that they deserve. I believe that each person has a calling in life and it takes a special person to become a nurse.
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.
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.
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.
Reviewing and examining my personal and professional values, I have to admit, there is nothing that surprised me. However, there is a lot that affirmed many of my beliefs. The values and beliefs to which I personally ascribe are undeniably impacted by my upbringing and social environment that I live in. They are the essence of who I am. My values influence every decision I make, how I conduct myself, and basically how I choose to live my life. I am fifty-two years old and in this stage of my life, I know that values play an important role in my life and I do recognize them and I know how to articulate them. Consequently, because I know my own values and beliefs, I knew what I want my employer to look like. Luckily, I was able to find a job that my values are in alignment with the values of my employer. Both, my employer and I encompass the value of caring. Which according to Burkhardt & Nathaniel (2014) is integral to the profession of nursing alongside with the value of curing.