Philosophy of nursing

This paper identifies an overview of my philosophy of nursing. I used online and literature documentations and I began the paper by defining nursing according to International Council of Nursing. The website for more information: http://www. icn. ch/about-icn/icn-definition-of-nursing/. I used Nightingale’s thoughts to describe four metaparadigms of nursing which are person, environment, health and nursing, and described how nursing integrates these concepts according to the literature Nursing Theories: The base for professional Practice (6th edition).

I also included the mission statement and core philosophy of Accelerated Surgical Center which I am employed and show the readers how I used these philosophies into my daily practice of nursing. There are also my past experiences with other nurses who had a positive impact of my philosophy and helped me be the nurse I am today. I also stressed about my personal philosophy which influences my nursing philosophy. Last, I also mentioned about how nursing helped me to be better person and to understand and respect values of others. Identifying My Personal Philosophy of Nursing

In order to define our philosophy of nursing we must first define what nursing is. According to International Council of Nursing (2003): Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles (ICN, 2003). Nurses do this by using a holistic approach and broad-base education. For nursing to be; you must have a person, health or well-being, society or environment.

I believe, these are all connected in a way that a healthy person is directly affected by the environment he is living, society that he is influenced and the care he receives. A person is the recipient of the care; not just the patient itself but also the family, friends and the loved ones. When we look at the patient, we also consider their past experiences, values, beliefs, their perception of health, their expectations and health preferences. The simple definition of health would be absence of an illness, injury or pain.

Spirit, body and soul are all cohesive to one another. Health should also be defined as the person’s aspect of self. For example, a friend of mine who has cerebral palsy has major difficulty with balance, walking, speaking but very intelligent and achieved success in his life does not consider self as being unhealthy. He is able to make decisions, hold a job as a computer tech. In the meantime, a patient that I met who suffers from chronic back pain after prolonged sitting is disabled and sees self as unhealthy and depressed about not being able to function much.

In order for a person to be healthy, he/she must be in a warm, nurturing and stress free environment. Nightingale stresses about the physical environment such as cleanness, light, noise and the ventilation (George, 2010). These are the external factors where the client is surrounding which can be home, hospital, school, or the neighborhood. However, an internal factor is the society which plays a big role in ones well being when sufficient support is received. A positive environment will likely bring positive outcomes.

Nurses are responsible for promoting positive environment to meet the patient’s health needs. Our mission statement in Accelerated Surgical Center is “ committed to the belief that Health Care should respect human dignity and enhance an individual’s quality of life”. Respecting human dignity and treating every patient individually is one of the key aspects of nursing. Nursing requires to understand and feel other persons pain without being critical to who they are or their decisions in life.

This philosophy helps me more now that I am working in a pain management clinic since we have many patients who are alcohol or drug dependent. Even though I may not accept or agree with this behavior, I respect them as human beings and set aside my personal values and biases. I respect their privacy and treat their pain as how they describe it to me. One of our core philosophy is “ To continue to further medical knowledge by performing clinical research and publishing results“. My nursing definition is both science and caring.

Science includes the base knowledge of anatomy and diseases to process nursing diagnoses and treatment. A nurse must be able to use the best technology available to have access to the best evidence and latest research to provide best care that puts into the account cultural and personal values of individuals. This is called evidence based practice and Cope defines it as using the best available research findings to make clinical decisions that are most effective and beneficial for the patients (as cited in Chitty & Black, 2011, . 258).

Another one of our philosophy is ‘ To provide services in a convenient, friendly and caring environment. ’ There is much more to nursing than the medical aspect. A client shall not only be treated for body but also mind and spirit. A nurse must also have the compassionate and caring behavior in order to help the patients and the families. My nursing philosophy bases on my personal philosophy and that is to care for someone as how I would want to be cared.

Sometimes a smile makes a difference in person life and I feel no matter how stressful or busy my day is I try to connect with my patients to develop a nurse-client relationship so we can build a trust. There may be days where I may not like my patient, but I have to respect them as a person. And I also believe in karma that If I do good things for others I will be rewarded in this life or in the next. I realized when my sister was in the hospital after she had an orthopedic surgery, she developed a complication called compartment syndrome.

She was very depressed about the possibility of losing her functions of walking and how a nurse made a difference in her day motivated me to look at the person and the family as a whole not just the body as it is a machine. Sometimes patients just need a positive reinforcement and encouragement which improves their spiritual health as well as physiological. However, in today’s healthcare system we can only spend so little time with our patients that must nurses are complaining of not being able to spend the quality of time with patients.

My inspiration of a nurse was our neighbor when I was a child who was a young mom of three children. She used nursing in her daily life with her caring and compassionate behavior throughout the neighborhood and her medical knowledge into her lifestyle such as healthy eating habits or raising her children. She was also educating other mothers. Her warm and caring personality influenced me to be a nurse and be a mom like she is. She was dedicated to her profession. It was her warm and personality that improved her nursing skills, but it was her knowledge being a nurse that improved her skills as a mom and be helpful to the neighborhood.

For this reason, I believe that as much as we are making a difference in to someone else’s life, nursing is also making a difference into our lives. Nursing helped me in many ways in my personal life. It made me realize life is precious and we need to hold on to things that we love. I feel that I became a better person and try to understand and respect other people’s beliefs and values. I have become patient and tolerant; I learn to deal with the stressful events. Most importantly, nursing gave me a pride of what I do, and self-confidence.