View of Nursing Practice

Nursing Philosophy

Nursing practice thrives on the existence of a professional culture, which is established by the values and ethos fostered nurse practitioners (Roux & Halstead, 2018). The nursing profession is a rewarding and fulfilling career as it involves providing assistance to different people with health and wellbeing problems. While this profession is characterized by some challenges such as nursing burnout, it remains a rewarding career as nurse practitioners are involved in the direct care of others. A critical part of establishing a professional culture in the nursing field and making significant contributions to people’s health and wellbeing is having an appropriate view of what it entails. Professionals in the field need to have a suitable view of what nursing really is. An individual’s view of being a nurse is reflected in his/her personal nursing philosophy. This paper discusses my personal view on being a nurse based on personal belief and concept of human beings, view of health, healthcare settings, and the roles of the nurse.

Personal Belief and Concept of Human Beings

Since childhood, I have always desired to work in a career or field that entails providing help to people in need. I have always been drawn to help find solutions to challenges people face in their daily lives. My desire to pursue a career that involves providing help to others is influenced by some of the challenges I have seen in my family. Life at home has not been generally easy as we have faced numerous struggles. As a result, I have always desired to be in a position where I can offer meaningful help to others including my family members, friends, and even strangers. I believe that my purpose in life is to help others in the best possible way I can. Throughout my high school years, I have always found so much satisfaction and joy from helping others.

A career in nursing offers me the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream and purpose of helping others. My desire to pursue a career in this field is not only shaped by my childhood experiences but also influenced by my personal belief and concept of human beings. I believe that human beings are holistic beings with a physical body, a soul, and spirit. These three aspects of an individual influence how/she is affected by the surrounding physical and social environments. Since human beings are holistic beings, they strive to achieve homodynamic balance. An individual’s view of his/her health and wellbeing is influenced by perceptions of his/her body, soul, and spirit. I believe that human beings function at their optimum when they maintain a positive perception of their body, soul, and spirit. A negative perception of any of these dimensions contributes to poor health and wellbeing. Given the interaction between these three dimensions of a human being, health and wellbeing is essentially each person’s individual responsibility (College of Nursing, 2014).

Personal Belief, Definition, and Concept of Health

At the core of nursing practice are efforts to promote the wholeness or unity of human beings and their environment (Jarrin, 2012). This implies that humans are at the center of the nursing profession and practice. Given the integrality of humans in nursing practice, I believe that health is the unity or wholeness of human beings and their physical/social environments. This wholeness or unity is influenced by the interactions between the three dimensions of an individual i.e. body, soul, and spirit. Therefore, the degree of health is a reflection of an individual’s perception of his physical and mental health as well as his/her spiritual status. These perceptions are influenced by the interactions between the body, soul, and spirit. This implies that health is essentially an individual’s responsibility as it reflects the extent to which he/she maintains positive interactions between the body, soul, and spirit.

In addition, physical and social environments play a critical role in one’s perception of his/her health and wellbeing. In this regard, an individual’s interaction with his/her surrounding environment influences his/her view of health and wellbeing. When one has issues in his/her perceptions of self, he/she is likely to affect the physical and social environment negatively. On the other hand, factors in one’s physical and social environment affect his/her body, soul, and spirit. Therefore, environmental factors affect health and wellbeing by affecting one’s body, soul, and spirit.

Personal Belief, Definition, and Concept of Registered Nurses

As previously indicated, nursing practice essentially focuses on promoting the unity or wholeness of human beings and their environment. This implies that the nursing profession is concerned with how human beings respond to changes in their physical, spiritual, and mental health in order to avoid or lessen suffering. Through focusing on human responses to changes in the environment, the main objective of nursing practice is to promote and maintain the health and wellness of populations. As a result, there are different nursing specialties that focus on addressing issues affecting the physical, mental, and spiritual health of patient populations. Regardless of their specialties, nurses are required to possess relevant knowledge, skills, abilities, and individual traits to promote health and wellness. This process involves undergoing nursing education and training in order to meet relevant licensing requirements.

Registered nurses are fully trained nurses who are licensed by a respective jurisdiction to provide and coordinate patient care. Nursing students and professionals are licensed as registered nurses after undergoing specialized education and training as well as passing a relevant comprehensive national examination. Therefore, registered nurses need a certain amount of nursing education and training and are mandated with the responsibility of completing standard tasks in the healthcare setting (Brooks, 2019). Following their education, training, and licensure, registered nurses work in various clinical settings. These healthcare professionals provide a broad range of direct patient care and can specialize in any discipline within the healthcare profession. These professionals can work in educational roles or serve as healthcare consultants.

The role of the nurse includes providing and coordinating patient care in different healthcare settings. Through providing and coordinating patient care, registered nurses play a critical role in promoting the health and wellbeing of different patient populations. Therefore, registered nurses are at the center of healthcare as they fulfill different roles and job duties in this field. They play different roles in healthcare including consulting, healthcare education, and direct patient care in order to help patients heal. I believe that the different roles of registered nurses make their work a rewarding career despite its intrinsic challenges like potential burnout and difficulties in achieving life-work balance.

Nursing roles differ depending on the scope of nursing practice in the jurisdictions. While registered nurses can play a wide range of patient care duties, their specific duties or scope of practice is determined by the respective state. Since current healthcare licensure differs by state, there are differences in the nursing scope of practice due to variability in the qualifications for licensure. For example, there are state-based regulatory barriers to full practice authority of advanced practice registered nurses. Advanced practice nurses in Alaska and Maryland have full practice authority whereas those in Alabama and Kentucky have reduced practice authority and those in California and Georgia have restricted practice authority. Full practice authority states allow nurse practitioners to prescribe, diagnose, and treat patients with oversight by a physician. On the contrary, in reduced authority states, nurse practitioners can diagnose and treat patients but require oversight by a physician in order to prescribe medications. In restricted authority states, nurse practitioners require physician oversight to prescribe, diagnose, and treat patients.

Concept of Healthcare Settings

Healthcare or clinical settings are where nursing occurs. This term represents a wide range of places and services where nursing occurs. Consequently, the term healthcare setting is used to refer to a healthcare agency or facility that provides or delivers nursing care to patients. Healthcare basically involves the process of providing direct patient care to help promote the health and wellness of patients. Such processes are carried out in an environment or place that is suitable to meet the individual needs and preferences of patients. I believe that healthcare settings serve as healing environments as they are facilities or places where patients obtain care for their respective health problems. These settings involve the collaboration between different stakeholders in the nursing process including patients, family members, and clinicians. These environments are designed depending on the patient’s specific needs and the complexity/severity of the health problem. Collaboration between these stakeholders is critical for patient-centered care since nursing practice sometimes occurs in a patient’s home setting/environment. Therefore, a healthcare setting entails more than a physical environment as it includes a place where the various stakeholders can collaborate to promote an individual’s health and wellness.