Personal Nursing Philosophy

My personal nursing philosophy is based on the idea that empathy and knowledge are what help to drive the field of nursing. Nurses should be understanding and demonstrate that understanding towards their patients. They should also be knowledgeable of the skills that are required to provide quality care to people. This philosophy aligns with the mission of Kean University School of Nursing (n.d.), which is “to advance the standards of practice in the region and to provide the breadth and depth of academic and clinical experiences to prepare registered nurses for advanced clinical practice and leadership roles within the context of a continuously changing health care system” (p. 4). Implicit in that mission is the idea of being adaptive. Adaptability goes hand in hand with empathy: an empathetic nurse is one who is flexible with people and able to shift from one person to the next, getting into that person’s shoes and seeing the world from that person’s eyes in order to understand how that person wants to be treated. This idea applies not just to patients but to colleagues as well. It also applies to the field of nursing, as the Kean University mission statement suggests. The nursing field is always changing—even today in the Digital Age there rise eHealth and telemedicine is helping nurses to overcome obstacles of time and space to better service clients (Barello et al., 2016). Knowledge is required to implement technology effectively in the field, but a nurse has to be adaptable in order to accept change—not only in the environment but also among people. This is the basis of my personal nursing philosophy.
Kean University helps to expand on its nursing philosophy by discussing it in terms of human beings, environment, health, and nursing. These four topics can provide a framework for how to think about nursing in a holistic manner. To help give context to my philosophy, the terms person, environment, health and nurse will now be defined by me.
Person
Every person has an identity. The identity is shaped by experience, family, friends, beliefs, values, culture. Sometimes religion plays a part in developing the worldview of the person. Sometimes a lack of a religion also plays a part. Every person is unique and that is something nurses must understand in order to provide quality care to every person, every patient. Some people are prejudiced against because they are different. They may be of a minority race, or they may have different views on gender identity. Disparities arise in health care because of problems like prejudice (Drewniak, Krones & Wild, 2017). Sometimes health care providers fail to recognize every individual as special and significant, as valuable and as having a right to care. Ending disparities in health care can start with the simple act of seeing every patient as a human being who needs to be helped, understood, and shown respect.
As Marrone (2015) points out, transcultural nurses can lead the way by recognizing the powerful input that is culture. A person’s culture can tell a lot about the individual—not that one should seek to stereotype, but rather the nurse should seek to be informed. The more that a nurse knows about various cultures, the more prepared the nurse can be to relate to each individual patient based upon a quick holistic assessment. This corresponds well with the definition of human beings provided by Kean University, which states that “understanding the fullness of the individual hinges upon discovery of these systems of meanings and value orientations” (p. 4). Providing quality care to persons depends upon embracing the fullness of the individual.
Environment
Environments impact people. A person’s socio-economic environment, for example, may be the difference between that person having good access to health care and having poor or no access to care (Whitehead et al., 2016). Environments can also be the difference between a person who has a healthy diet and a person who consumes a poor diet. Environments are full of factors—from family and friends to physical surroundings; one could be surrounded by beauty and fresh air or live in a pollution-filled city where there is no clean water or sanitation.
Environments not only impact people, they impact the way we think about people. Sometimes we might think, “Oh, that person is from the inner city or from a bad part of town. That person might be a criminal or a drug dealer.” This goes back to making assumptions that are bad for nurses because they dehumanize the person. People are more than the sum of their parts—and that is the point that the Kean University nursing philosophy makes: yes, environments are influential—but they do not have the last word on what makes a person a person. Therefore, nurses should be mindful of the environment in which an individual lives because sometimes this environment will have a negative impact on the person’s health. Educating the patient about the ways environments can be unhealthy is one of the things a nurse must do when practicing preventive care.
Health
Health is not just the physical state of a human being—it also describes the mental and even spiritual state of a person. Nurses have to think holistically about health and health care. When treating a patient, a nurse must do more than just treat a symptom. Oftentimes, symptoms are related. One symptom can be impacted or generated by another. To just look in a narrow way at what is happening with the body is not sufficient. This is why collaborative care and interprofessional collaboration is so important. Nurses can work with psychologists, physical therapists, behavioral therapists, and other professionals to help develop a care plan for patients that impacts them holistically to achieve a true quality level of care.
Nurse
Nursing is a calling—a vocation just like anything else. Some people are called to be teachers, some to be political leaders, and some to be nurses. The nurse is someone who is willing to serve others. The nurse embodies the idea of servant leadership. The nurse puts the needs of others before his or her own. Every nurse views a patient as someone in need and every nurse must be willing to put in the time and effort to understand those needs and how they can best be met.
The nurse cannot be static when it comes to developing the skills and acquiring the knowledge to be proficient—to be an expert in the field of health care. As Kean University points out, the field is dynamic and is always changing. Researchers are continuously publishing new information on best practices and evidence that can be used in evidence-based practice. Nurses cannot be insulated from this information: they have to be willing to seek it out and soak it up just like a sponge absorbs and retains water.
Nurses have to be dedicated not only to their patients but also to their craft. They have to be focused on continuing their education so that they can come back to their patient and treat them with the kind of care they require. In the end, it is all about the patient—the person—the person at the center of patient-centered care.
References
Barello, S., Triberti, S., Graffigna, G., Libreri, C., Serino, S., Hibbard, J., & Riva, G.
(2016). eHealth for patient engagement: a systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 2013.
Drewniak, D., Krones, T., & Wild, V. (2017). Do attitudes and behavior of health care
professionals exacerbate health care disparities among immigrant and ethnic minority groups? An integrative literature review. International journal of nursing studies, 70, 89-98.
Kean University School of Nursing. (n.d.). Mission statement.
Marrone, S. R. (2015). President's message: Reducing health disparities: transcultural
nurses leading the way. Journal of Transcultural Nursing: Official Journal of the Transcultural Nursing Society, 26(2), 209.
Whitehead, M., Pennington, A., Orton, L., Nayak, S., Petticrew, M., Sowden, A., &
White, M. (2016). How could differences in ‘control over destiny’lead to socio-economic inequalities in health? A synthesis of theories and pathways in the living environment. Health & Place, 39, 51-61.