This paper presents a personal nursing philosophy grounded in the author's lifelong desire to help others and shaped by beliefs about the holistic nature of human beings. It examines the concept of health as the unity of body, soul, and spirit within physical and social environments, defines the role of registered nurses across varying scopes of practice, and describes healthcare settings as collaborative healing environments. Drawing on personal experience and foundational nursing literature, the paper articulates a coherent philosophical framework for professional nursing practice centered on promoting the health and wellness of diverse patient populations.
The paper effectively uses a metaparadigm structure — organizing the nursing philosophy around the four classic nursing concepts of person, health, environment, and nursing — which is a standard and well-regarded framework in nursing education. This approach signals disciplinary fluency and allows the writer to integrate personal beliefs with scholarly sources in a disciplined, professional way.
The paper opens with a brief contextual introduction, followed by four body sections that address each component of the nursing metaparadigm in turn: the nature of human beings, the definition of health, the role of registered nurses (including scope-of-practice distinctions), and the concept of healthcare settings. A short conclusion synthesizes all four elements. The structure is straightforward and well-matched to the reflective, first-person genre of a nursing philosophy paper.
Nursing practice thrives on the existence of a professional culture, which is established by the values and ethos fostered by nurse practitioners (Roux & Halstead, 2018). The nursing profession is a rewarding and fulfilling career, as it involves providing assistance to people with health and wellbeing problems. While this profession is characterized by challenges such as nursing burnout, it remains rewarding because nurse practitioners are involved in the direct care of others. A critical part of establishing a professional culture in nursing and making significant contributions to people's health and wellbeing is having an appropriate understanding of what the field entails. Professionals need a suitable view of what nursing really is, and an individual's view of being a nurse is reflected in his or her personal nursing philosophy. This paper discusses a personal view of nursing based on personal beliefs and concepts of human beings, views of health, healthcare settings, and the roles of the nurse.
Since childhood, I have always desired to work in a career that entails providing help to people in need. I have always been drawn to finding solutions to challenges people face in their daily lives. My desire to pursue a career that involves helping others is influenced by challenges I have witnessed within my own family. Life at home has not always been easy, and 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 family members, friends, and even strangers. I believe that my purpose in life is to help others in the best way I can, and throughout my high school years I found great satisfaction and joy from doing so.
A career in nursing offers the opportunity to fulfill this lifelong purpose. My desire to pursue a career in this field is shaped not only by personal experiences but also by my beliefs about human beings. I believe that human beings are holistic beings with a physical body, a soul, and a spirit. These three aspects of an individual influence how he or she is affected by surrounding physical and social environments. Since human beings are holistic, they strive to achieve homodynamic balance. An individual's view of his or her health and wellbeing is influenced by perceptions of body, soul, and spirit. I believe that human beings function at their optimum when they maintain a positive perception of all three dimensions. A negative perception of any one dimension contributes to poor health and wellbeing. Given the interaction between these three dimensions, health and wellbeing is essentially each person's individual responsibility (St. Petersburg College, 2014).
At the core of nursing practice are efforts to promote the wholeness or unity of human beings and their environment (Jarrin, 2012). This positions humans at the center of the nursing profession and practice. Given the centrality of humans in nursing practice, I believe that health is the unity or wholeness of human beings and their physical and social environments. This wholeness is shaped by the interactions among the three dimensions of the individual — body, soul, and spirit. The degree of health is therefore a reflection of an individual's perception of his or her physical and mental health as well as spiritual status. These perceptions are influenced by the ongoing interactions between the body, soul, and spirit, which means that health is essentially an individual's responsibility, reflecting the extent to which he or she maintains positive interactions among these dimensions.
In addition, physical and social environments play a critical role in one's perception of health and wellbeing. An individual's interaction with his or her surrounding environment influences how health and wellbeing are experienced. When one has difficulties in self-perception, he or she is likely to affect the physical and social environment negatively. Conversely, factors in one's physical and social environment affect the body, soul, and spirit. Environmental factors therefore shape health and wellbeing by acting on all three dimensions of the person.
Nursing is a rewarding and fulfilling career that involves providing assistance to people in the form of healthcare services. As the center of nursing practice, human beings are holistic beings with a body, soul, and spirit. The interactions among these three dimensions and environmental factors play a crucial role in how one perceives his or her health and wellbeing. Health refers to an individual's view of his or her physical, mental, and spiritual status in light of the physical and social environment. Nursing practice focuses on promoting the health and wellness of patient populations, and healthcare settings are the environments where this practice occurs through meaningful collaboration among key stakeholders.
Brooks, A. (2019, September 2). What does RN mean? The true definition of a registered nurse. Retrieved from Rasmussen University website: https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/nursing/blog/what-does-rn-mean/
Jarrin, O. F. (2012). The integrality of situated caring in nursing and the environment. Advances in Nursing Science, 35(1), 14–24.
Roux, G., & Halstead, J. A. (2018). Issues and trends in nursing: Practice, policy and leadership (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
St. Petersburg College. (2014). Philosophy. Retrieved from St. Petersburg College website.
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