Nursing Philosophy - Essay Example

Nursing philosophy can be described as a framework that nurses use as a guide in their thinking, observing interpreting, and carrying out their practices. According to Betty Neumann, both the client and the nursing process are systematic. The nursing environment, patient, health, and nurse are the major metaparadigms of nursing. This paper focuses on an analysis of a different concept that underlies the nursing philosophy.

There are different meta-paradigms that underlie nursing. These include a person, health, environment, and nursing. According to this paradigm, a sick person is defined as a subject. Sick individuals can be either groups or families. A sick individual should be treated differently from other individuals. Health can be described in different contexts depending on an individual’s condition or problem. Environment explains the factors that are necessary for the well-being of patients. These factors can be either internal or external. Internal help explains the mental state of an individual while external can explain a patient's home life. Nursing as a paradigm helps to explain the nursing profession and the difference between these individuals and other career holders. Nurses are believed to be individuals who are to offer compassion to patients to help them in their healing process (George 2005).

There are specific concepts involved in nursing; one of the concepts is caring. Nurses in their duty are required to be caring towards patients. Care from nurses is a sign of professionalism. Nurses are required to have a positive attitude towards their patients, this is important because it helps a patient develop a positive attitude towards life. Another practice-specific concept involved in nursing is orientation. Nurses are supposed to offer clear details on their patient’s progress. In order to ensure clarity a nurse should be able to use a chart efficiently so that she can easily remember a patient’s medication. Remembering a patient’s medication ensures that a patient takes his medication at the right time (Smith 2008).

Nurses can apply their caring nature towards HIV/AIDS patients. Most people have negative attitudes towards patients suffering from HIV/AIDS. This is based on different biases about these patients. There are individuals who believe that HIV/AIDS patients cause their own problems. Nurses are to offer support and care to these individuals to enable them to have a positive attitude towards life and their health condition. Nurses can show their caring nature towards these patients by constantly motivating them and assuring them that they will be fine. Giving them attention is also a sure sign of showing care, in the sense that they should not feel rejected and ignored. Nurses dealing with HIV/AIDS patients should ensure that they keep full records of their patient’s medication. This will ensure that patients get medication at the right time and in the right manner (George 2005).

Nursing assumptions/ theories

A nursing theory can be defined as definitions or relationships that can be used in describing relationships that exist in different concepts. These assumptions are defined by different individuals and have their own uniqueness that distinguishes them from one another. According to Florence Nightingale, nursing is highly affected by the patient’s environment. The patient’s environment highly affects his health. This means that, if a patient is staying in a friendly environment he will be able to heal faster than that from a cruel environment. Ernestine observes that there are different methods through which nurses can use in meeting a patient’s needs, these methods are mainly geared towards observation. Virginia says that, in order for patients to achieve independence they require total support from people around them (Smith 2008).

Conclusion

Nursing g philosophy is a guideline for their thinking, observing interpreting, and thinking. In order to show professionalism a nurse has to have certain qualities. One is required to be caring, detail-oriented, and hard-working.