Healing in temporal and situational contexts

Heal Sometimes: My Nursing Ethic

The job of a nurse is to help their patients (Board of Registered Nurses 2013). This is more than just helping to heal their physical or mental illnesses or injuries. It is also about being compassionate and understanding, to make the patient feel safe and to try to help them deal with the anxiety and fear of being in a hospital setting. As a nurse, I believe in doing everything that is possible to help my patients while maintaining ethical standards as well. In the chapter entitled "To Heal Sometimes, to Comfort Always," the author explains that there is far more to nursing than simply evaluating illness or injury and helping to provide treatment for the condition. Above all else, a nurse should be the person who treats the mental state of the patient and tries to make them feel better about being in a hospital and about receiving treatments. Since patients will naturally be upset, aggravated, and displeased, nurses must have a personality that empathizes and also possess a demeanor which is soothing and comforting that will help the patient.

My PASSION is for helping others. This passion is what encourages me to pursue my education so that I can receive the proper training to be able to help others. The Hippocratic Oath is my personal creed as well. I pledge that my actions will always be for the treatment of my patients and that I will do them no harm, even if they ask it of me (Kass). First do no harm is the most important part of the oath to me because one of the fears that exists regarding medical treatment is that doctors and nurses care more about the medical practices than about the patients, that they perform actions which hurt and fail to act when the cost is too high. This disheartens me as I think first and foremost about those in my care and how best to help them through their time of need.

My MOTIVATION to keep going is to provide for myself and my family because the profession does provide a good salary, but also because I know I will do a wonderful job as a nurse. There are both prosaic and emotional reasons why I have chosen nursing as my profession. I have a great deal of empathy for those who are suffering and this will allow me to be compassionate with my charges. It has always been part of my character to be a caregiver. When members of my family were ill, I would always be the one to take care of them and this is still the case. The same is true for my friends. This need to help others has always been a big part of my identity and this need motivate me to keep working towards my goal of becoming a nurse.

My INSPIRATION is the code of ethics that nurses have to obey. According to the American Nurses Association (2014), "The ANA believes the Code for Nurses is nonnegotiable and that each nurse has an obligation to uphold and adhere to the code of ethics." As a nurse, I will pledge to learn and obtain education to treat my patients, but also that I will be kind, patient, and compassionate as well as keep a level head in times of crisis which are nearly constant in a hospital. Ethics is an extremely important part of nursing and one that may give cause for concern. In the world we live in, there is something of a fear regarding the medical community and the idea that the concern is for profit and not for patients. This is where I might have issues if I work for a big-name HMO hospital because there is the fear that they seek measures which are most cost-effective. I want to do what is right for my patients without fearing that paths to treatment might be cut off.

My LOYALTY is to my patients always. The job of a nurse is to heal and care for individuals at times of their lives when they are the most vulnerable. People are in pain and they will be frightened. A nurse must be the advocate for his or her patients, not only treating them but also advocating for the best care available for the patient, regardless of race, religion, gender, age, or social position. No patient has more value than any other and no patient becomes less deserving of care because of whom or what they are.