Personal Nursing Philosophy - Essay Example

? My Personal Nursing Philosophy My Personal Nursing Philosophy I chose to pursue nursing as a profession due to my desire to help those in need. In fact, I have been longing of becoming a nurse since my childhood, something that finally prompted me to pursue nursing as a career. Nursing is an honorable career that ought not to be treated as job meant to make someone rich, but rather as a calling to serve humanity. The American Nurses Association defines nursing as the protection, promotion, and prevention of illnesses and injuries in a bid to alleviate suffering through diagnosis and treatment (Kikuchi and Simmons, 1994). Nevertheless, nursing has much more as a whole that what it appears to be to the ordinary citizens. I will be exploring throughout this paper my nursing philosophy, which pertains to what I believe to be the principal feature of nursing. In so doing, I will explore how I view my role, responsibilities, as well as how I plan to deliver care to patients. To begin with, my nursing philosophy and beliefs are based on the following premises: knowledge, compassion/caring, time management, respect, privacy of patients and honesty. My motive of pursuing a nursing as a career is based on the seven-value system. Nursing, unlike other careers, is pursued with the aim of helping and caring for others. I strongly believe that the success of a nurse depends hugely on the knowledge and the ability to use the knowledge in the health care setting. Polifroni and Welch (1999) argue that a good nurse must know the diseases, as well as the disease processes. This implies that a nurse must be able to apply the knowledge and skills gained from class to the place of work to ensure effectiveness. However, it is worth noting that merely passing exams does not mean that the nursing student will be able to apply the knowledge in the healthcare setting. In this regard, I strongly believe that effective application of knowledge gained from the classroom is more important. In addition, personality and bedside manners are extremely crucial as far as treating and caring for patients is concerned (Dahnke and Dreher, 2011). Nonetheless, personality and bedside manners are not the only nursing aspects that determine the success of nurses in their nursing profession. According to Dahnke and Dreher (2011), a dutiful nurse must also be able to think holistically in anticipation of the needs of his or her patients. To do this, a nurse must be able to prioritize health care concerns within the patient’s personal diagnosis and the entire patients that the nurse is taking care of. Time management is highly critical since it ensures that all the pressing needs are attended to on time. A nurse who is poor in time management and organization cannot succeed in providing quality health care expected on time given the daily responsibilities and shifts. I also strongly believe that to be a successful nurse, one needs to be compassionate and caring. These are values, which were instilled in me during my upbringing as a child by my parents and relatives. In the nursing profession, one needs to have a sense of compassion and care for patients and their families. As I earlier indicated, nursing is a calling and entails caring and providing treatments to patients and their family members. As a nurse, one must have a sense of compassion and be caring because patients come with different complications and needs - some emotional while others are physical. Therefore, a nurse must be prepared to handle both the physical and emotional needs of patients, according to Dahnke and Dreher (2011). In fact, most nurses fear working with patients with complicated emotional needs. However, I came to discover that these patients are easy to work with as long as a nurse has the sense of compassion and care. It became apparent that once a close relationship and trust is built between the nurse and the patients such patients become very humble and easy to work with. This indicates the importance of empathy and compassion in nursing practice. Just as we need to be respected by others patients also deserve respect from nurses. In this regard, I believe that nurses should handle their patients with respect regardless of their health situation. More at times, we have heard of several cases of nurses disrespecting their patients. This amounts to a breach of the nursing professional code of conduct that ought not to be witnessed in the health care setting. Therefore, nurses should show respect to patients and their families all the time as this helps build a strong bond between them and patients, which is good for service delivery. As a nurse, I strongly believe that a good nurse must be honest. Honesty is an aspect of ethics, which all nurses ought to adhere to in the health care setting. Honesty in this case entails being truthful to patients when dealing with them, according to Dahnke and Dreher (2011). Honesty has proved particularly crucial at the diagnosis stage. For instance, when a patient is diagnosed with a disease, it is prudent of a nurse to tell the patient the absolute truth of the findings. This is because truthfulness helps in finding the best medication methods to adopt in the treatment of a disease. Dishonest nurses do not normally succeed in their nursing profession since they lose the trust of patients thereby making patients shy away from seeking care and treatment from health care institutions where such nurses are employed. Finally, I strongly believe that the privacy of patients must be safeguarded by nurses all the time. Privacy of patients, according to Dahnke and Dreher (2011) entail refraining from leaking out a patient’s health information to third parties without their consent. Normally, patients who know that their health information may not be kept secret by a nurse tend to refrain from seeking services from such nurses. Therefore, it is very essential for nurses to ensure that all health information of a patient is safeguarded. For instance, when a nurse diagnoses a patient with a disease such as cancer, it is important to keep such health information secrets. This is because leaking such health information to third parties without the consent of the patient may put the patient at risk of stigmatization associated with the disease. Therefore, based on my nursing philosophies discussed above, I will ensure that I use the knowledge I have gained to deliver quality health care services to patients. Since respect is a key characteristic of nursing, I will ensure that I handle all my patients with respect and without discrimination. In addition, I will ensure that I prioritize all my duties in order to be able to manage time properly. Further, I will work with honesty and ensure that the privacy of patients is safeguarded. In fact, I have gained a lot of insight about nursing since I enrolled in the course. Initially, I thought that nursing entailed only treating patients. However, now that I am in my final year, I have discovered that nursing is more than just treating patients. Rather, nursing also entails providing care to patients of all kinds including those with emotional problems, as noted by Dahnke and Dreher (2011). In addition, I have also discovered that nursing should be treated as a calling rather than a job. This is because it requires someone with a helping heart since patients come with different problems that need assistance regardless of payment. Nurses also do find themselves in ethical dilemmas in the course of their duties. For example, I have always been confronted with several ethical dilemmas concerning abortion. This is because, despite the fact that abortion is legalized in the United States where I pursue my nursing career, I am a pro-life believer. I strongly believe that life begins at conception and ought not to be terminated. However, since it is legalized in the U.S., I have always been forced to terminate pregnancies out of my wish. I have always felt bad when with confronted with a pregnancy that requires termination since I feel that it goes against the Biblical teaching in which we are commanded not to kill. This implies that terminating a pregnancy in itself is killing since according to my ethical belief, life begins at conception. Despite the ethical dilemmas that I have been confronted with in the course of service delivery, I have always adhered to the nursing ethical code of conduct during service delivery. Based on the numerous positive feedbacks I have received from patients and their family members whom I have provided care and treatments to, I am satisfied that I have been able to deliver quality services. In conclusion, as nursing graduates, we need to utilize all the knowledge, values, and ideas we have to ensure quality service delivery to patients. In addition, to be successful as professional nurses, we should always incorporate all the principal characteristics of nursing such as the proper time management, knowledge, honesty, respect compassion/caring, advocacy and patient privacy. References Dahnke, M.D., & Dreher, H.M. (2011). Philosophy of science for nursing practice: Concepts and application. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. Kikuchi, J.F., & Simmons, H.F. (1994). Developing a philosophy of nursing. London: SAGE. Polifroni, E.C., & Welch, M.P. (1999). Perspectives on philosophy of science in nursing: A historical and contemporary anthology. 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