Values and Ideals in Nursing Program Philosophy

Nursing Program Philosophy

The values and ideals that go into a nursing program philosophy should be universal in nature, for the reason that nurses are of the community and serve the community. This may seem to complicate the issue of developing such a philosophy but ultimately it should simplify it. The issue of the truth is a non-issue, however. There is only one truth -- facts are facts. The idea that different people can experience different truths is false -- they can experience different opinions, their interpretation of the truth colored by various biases, but there is no reason why credence should be given to people's bias-laden versions of reality. Objective truth is supported by fact, period, and is not changeable by any individual.

But values and ideals are quite different between people. Values and ideals arise from individual experiences, cultural influences and a variety of other factors. Values and ideals can be quite different from one another. For example, health care in the West is generally focused on illnesses. When this manifest in something like end-of-life care, nurses and other health care practitioners will treat symptoms, such as pain, but tend to remain detached from the patient. Non-Western cultures sometimes taken an entirely different perspective, often more patient-focused. This does not mean focusing on the patient's symptoms, but rather on their mental and emotional state. Particularly, where Western medicine often treats end-of-life care as any other care, in other cultures end-of-life is viewed as something completely different than normal health care, leading to a different approach that is warmer, less oriented towards treating symptoms and more oriented towards helping take the patient through the process of dying, however that is interpreted in their own culture. So there are sometimes significant differences in how nurses approach their jobs in different value systems (Lutz & Bowers, 2000).

In a multicultural society, where nurses and patients both of are different cultures, setting out a philosophy for a nursing program can be difficult. There are different ways to conceive of a nurse's role in patient care. It is best, therefore, not to allow one individual or even one culture to strictly dictate the philosophy. Instead, there should be a quest for a philosophy that embraces the more universal values that bind all humanity.

Leininger's diversity and universality theory looks at this issue, in the form of transcultural nursing (Leininger & McFarland, 2008). In this theory, there are cultural dynamics that influence the nurse-client relationship (Leininger & McFarland, 2008). A nursing program philosophy should emphasize basic human values such as caring, adherence to professional standards, and attention to evidence-based practice. But beyond that, there needs to be a reflection that the specific relationship between nurses and patients can change depending on the needs of each patient. Nurses should be flexible with respect to how they approach the nurse-patient relationship as a result. Understanding cultural differences and adapting to them can have a distinctly positive influence on patient outcomes.