Nursing Philosophy Essays (Examples)

Nursing

Letter of Introduction

As an advance practice nurse, I intend to apply my education and professional experience to improving patient outcomes. A holistic nursing philosophy and commitment to caring are the crucial components of my professional character. I also recognize the importance of nurse education and leadership in providing the organizational culture that promotes healing, supports nurses, and advocates for the well being of all patients. My personal nursing philosophy also recognizes the value of diversity.

I believe that health and wellness have personal and cultural dimensions and that it is important for all nurse practitioners to acknowledge the diversity of their patients and resist assuming that all patients have the same emotional and spiritual needs. Advance practice nurses have an ethical obligation to learning about their patients' backgrounds, as well as learning their specific responses to pain and illness. Nursing is a career of lifelong learning, too meaning…

As such, "nursing is caring for people and their environment in ordered to maintain well-being in individual, family, and/or community using therapeutic techniques" (Long, 2012). Caring is at the very center of the nursing paradigm, and helps set a foundation for the other elements. Next comes the concept of health. This "concerns nurses as medical professionals (rather than mere adjuncts to doctors)" (Johnson, 2013). Nurses care because they want to promote health and ease suffering. Yet, "health is not an absolute concept, but exists in the context of the health problems of the individual" (Johnson, 2013). Once again, it must be fluid and flexible enough to be able to adapt to a wide plethora of different types of situations. Both of these first two elements must maintain a certain level of flexibility in order to cater to the third element, the unique individual person that is in need of medical…

There are clear philosophical connections between the core ideas of hermeneutics and those of historicism, because each posits a potentially radical degree of relativism. odgers & Knafl (2005) explore this, arguing not for a return to any radical empiricism but rather to acknowledge that while knowledge and certainly medical praxis is socially constructed (and constructed along lines of socially sanctioned power hierarchies), there are fundamental empirical elements to nursing that cannot be trivialized.

Moreover, odgers & Knafl (2005, p. 118) argue that such a trend towards a radical sort of relativism (or, perhaps more accurately, a fully realized postmodernism) is not in keeping with the philosophical tenets and requirements of the hermeneutic writers that nurses have embraced: While knowledge is certainly socially constructed, the key to a hermeneutic reading is a focus on the social nature of the way in which knowledge is created and transmitted.

It is important to…

Critics of holistic nursing have occasionally insinuated that holism is somehow incompatible with evidence-based practice such as that which underlies the Magnet standards. That is truly unfortunate. Holistic concerns in nursing are more than merely "compatible" with an evidence-based perspective; in fact, the holistic emphasis is an expansion of available treatment modalities that has been demonstrated empirically to bolster clinical success rather than competing with it or contradicting it (Stetler, 2001).

Holistic nursing is fundamentally, inclusive and a valuable adjunctive modality that does not shift focus away from the hard science components of modern nursing; holistic nursing complements clinical modalities.

Multiculturalism in Holistic Nursing:

Multiculturalism and the increasing age of the American population present two other fundamental components of the holistic approach to nursing that emphasizes treating the whole person in conjunction with clinical therapeutics. Patient outcomes have been clearly demonstrated to improve, both in studies of higher rates of…

I also feel that nurses should maintain impartiality through the build up of procedures, supervising benefits and the sustenance of source distribution to guarantee the fulfillment of the client requests (Cooper, 1991).

Confidentiality also believe that a nurse should be able to handle situations where the data of a client conflicts with the greater good that could be achieved with the publication of that particular info and when it is best to give out or retain that information. Confidentiality is an important factor in every organization, and nurses have to especially be careful about the private disposition of client data that they get and should protect it from leaking out to any unnecessary sources and that the organizational setup is free from the danger of a secrecy violation (Cooper, 1991).

Veracity (truthfulness) nurse is always expected to fulfill her duties keeping in mind that an honest and open environment is…

Nursing Philosophy

The author of this report is asked to offer three main points of discussion within this report. These three sections all related to nursing theory and they will be compared and contrasted to the personal philosophy of the author of this paper. The three points of discussion are the four meta-paradigms of nursing theory, two practice-specific concepts and a list of propositions that the author of this paper would offer relative to nursing and the author's personal philosophy.

Four Meta-Paradigms

As intimated in the introduction, there are four meta-paradigms of nursing and they will each be described and analyzed in detail. The first of those four is person. A main point of this meta-paradigm is to use the word "subject" rather than "patient" to refer to the patient in the fullest and truest sense. The idea behind this is that the person is a fully singular and autonomous…

However, from the anti-realist point-of-view, such manifestations are not enough for an individual to consider the patient alive. One can posit that the absence of the patient's ability to communicate or interact is a manifestation of death, or the state of not being alive. That is, despite the biological signs of life shown in the apparatuses, anti-realists view the patient as dead because s/he is no longer able to perform one function that humans are distinctly known to be able to accomplish excellently: the ability to communicate and/or interact with others.

The phenomenologists, meanwhile, "centered their attention on the lived experience of those persons being smiled at and touched. Since human consciousness is the only object which may be studied, it was the essential experience of patients that mattered" (130). In this philosophy of nursing, experiential relations between the nurse and the patient is considered the most important learning that…

2)

The four identified metaparadigms of nursing -- nurse, person, environment, and health -- reflect the current understanding of nursing practice as an integrated part of medical treatment and health enhancement. Though each concept is highly related to the others, each represents a different way of approaching and understanding issues in nursing. The nurse is understood as a medical practitioner, using verified empirical data in providing treatment options to the patient. The person metaparadigm takes the subjectivity and personal judgment that is equally essential to the practice of nursing into account (Chin & Kramer 2004). Environment can be understood as the physical, emotional, and social surroundings of the treatment, and health is best understood as the overall well-being of those involved in treatment. Each concept refers to a distinct way of studying issues in nursing, yet each is also completely essential for a comprehensive understanding of modern nursing practice and…

nursing profession has debated the relevance of nursing models to nursing practice and it is clear that most nurses, particularly practicing nurses, continue to judge them to be not relevant" (Meehan, 2012, p. 2906). I disagree and believe firmly in implementation of sound nursing models in nursing practice. My philosophy nursing centers around holistic care and knowledge of care to drive practice. This means that in order to heal and assist patients and clients, one must be willing approach a situation from a multi-level perspective. Nutrition, activity level, supplementation, and stress management are just some of the levels one as a nurse should discuss and monitor in patients. "Traditionally, nurses have sought to care for the whole person and as formal nursing knowledge was developed, this intention was conceptualized as holistic nursing" (Meehan, 2012, p. 992). Furthermore, keeping up-to-date with research and innovative practices will keep me informed on what…

nursing philosophy influenced "Management Care Professional Issues" [capstone nursing] (2) How I live nursing philosophy I enter workforce? Each question answered 2-3 sentences.

My philosophy of nursing: Putting it into practice

When reflecting upon how my philosophy of nursing has been influenced by this Capstone course, my immediate response is that it is the first time that I really have had the opportunity to construct a true philosophy of nursing. Before, I tended to react to events without putting them in a larger context, and approached medical issues in a largely technical manner. Now, I am more inclined to think about how my decisions will interact with a patient's social, psychological, and environmental conditions. My philosophy of nursing is contingent upon the idea that the nurse must treat the whole patient in a spirit of caritas, and take into consideration the 'big picture.' A patient's personal definitions of health and…

Nursing Philosophy

We all have a philosophy -- whether related to our professional engagements or otherwise. Indeed, it is on the basis of our individual philosophies that we form the conduct of life. A nursing philosophy in the words of eed (as cited in Masters 2014, p. 100) is essentially "a statement of foundational and universal assumptions, beliefs, and principles about the nature of truth and knowledge (epistemology) and about the nature of the entities -- nursing practice and human being healing process-represented in the metaparadigm (ontology)."

Although I may not yet be a nurse, I do have a personal philosophy that I intend to practice and apply on entering the nursing field. In addition to representing my belief about this noble profession, my personal philosophy also allocates meaning to my future roles as a nurse and responsibility to patients. In seeking to highlight my personal philosophy, I will be…

They not only delivered the medical care that she needed, but they held her hand, hugged her, put lotion on her, made her feel that each day was another gift. She became very attached to two of the nurses and I believe they were the people who helped her accept her fate and enjoy the little time she still had left.

As I grew up and encountered nurses at various places I saw their ability to deliver care at the same time they delivered caring.

My purpose for becoming a nurse is to be able to provide comfort and assurance and medical care to those who need it. Whether it is relieving a patient's pain, handling their post surgery care, or helping them recover from a heart attack, it is important to me that they had someone they could count on medically to provide a consistent level of confidence, comfort…

Nurses today are authorities on a variety of health problems and care. Family members and friends even seek them out for advice and support, when they are off duty. In office, they have become more and more important in the American healthcare system. This paper briefly discusses the present and future of nursing.

The Present and Future of Nursing

Nurses today are authorities on a variety of health problems and care. Family members and friends even seek them out for advice and support, when they are off duty. In office, they have become more and more important in the American healthcare system.

Nurses are critical to a patient's satisfaction. A positive evaluation of a nurse usually leads to a patient being satisfied with their hospital environment (Gotlieb, 2002).

Not so long ago, nurses were seen as simply assistants to the doctors that they worked for. Today, because of managed care…

Stressors in the environment encompass the health condition necessitating the dialysis but also the stressors of the procedure itself, which can be profoundly disruptive to the patient's sense of dignity and control (Hagopian, 2009, Slide 51). Responding to and adapting to the environment might encompass improving the comfort level of the patient, distracting the patient with positive talk, providing emotional counsel, and noting alternations in the patient's overall state of mental or physical wellness that might require additional treatment.

Health

Health may be defined by the patient's state of relative physical, emotional, and sociological well-being (Hagopian, 2009, Slide 7). Questions that might arise when assessing the patient's health are: How functional is the patient? How positive is his or her mindset? hat sort of social and financial resources does he or she have to improve his or her treatment? All of these factors affect one another. For example, someone without…

Personal Philosophy of Nursing

Nursing is, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, one of the 'hottest' or most desirable to enter of all professions today because of the increasing cost of health care, because of the managed health care system's extraction of doctor's time and personal resources, and the aging of the American population as a whole. More individuals will need personal care, advice on taking prescriptions and managing health and illness, and greater attention than physicians can provide. But despite this supposed national health care trend, the definition of nursing remains the same. It is not a definition that every personality can accommodate. To be a nurse, one must put an individual and human face upon medicine for the individual patient, tailoring the doctor's instructions and requests for the individual in a flexible fashion that is still perfectly consistent with an accurate and high standard of care. It…

Personal Philosophy of Nursing

I believe that nursing may or may not always be curative but it is always caring. That is why the philosophy of nursing which resonates with me the most is that of Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit theory. This theory suggests that nurses must step in only when patients cannot take care of themselves. Nurses have a supportive function for all patients of all states of health but this function differs depending on the needs of the patient. For a patient that is a healthy weight, a nurse may provide advice about how to maintain that weight and improve health through exercise. For an overweight patient with advanced diabetes, the supportive function of the nurse will be much greater and will likely involve helping the patient manage his or her condition through tracking glucose readings and using medication appropriately. What I like about Orem's theory is that…

In my personal opinion, it is, firstly, imperative to define philosophy, before embarking on a discussion of the topic. I believe the following definition by Shrock is the most ideal: Philosophy represents an outlook towards reality and life, arising out of individual nurses’ personal beliefs. My personal nursing philosophy has the following elements: environment, society, care recipient (i.e., patient), and the relationship between the above three aspects. Individual experiences within religious, cultural and demographic contexts play a part in one’s interpretation of reality and subsequent worldview formation (Lorenc, Blair & Robinson, 2014). Worldview may be defined as a collection of presumptions and opinions articulating cultural interpretation and justification of experiences. It portrays a complex, comprehensive image of life, encompassing its value and meaning, and it is difficult to distil it into personal health related beliefs. Thus, the cost of overlooking it, for clinicians, proves rather steep. Contrary to discrete health-related…

Nursing Philosophy

Perhaps the most fundamental tenet of my nursing philosophy is the administration of care in an intrinsically empathetic manner which benefits the patient. I unequivocally believe in patient-centered care and that nurses who are able to maintain this component of their practice as their primary goal are able to produce the greatest efficacy in administering to patients. Moreover, with all of the concerns of the contemporary healthcare market, including various facets of financial and technological concern, the shortage of various practitioners, and innovations in precision medicine, it is easy to forget that the most vital component of the health care industry is the patients themselves. Quite simply, patients have the most to gain and lose from the health care system. Therefore, I readily believe that keeping those patients as the center of the care delivered by me and others within my profession is the best way we can…

Likewise, Callista oy's Adaptation Model of Nursing provides a contextual bridge between the internal physiological determinants of patient health and the crucial aspects of external environment that typically influence patient health and (especially) patient perceptions and attitudes about health and medical or nursing interventions. Together, application of the principles promoted by Watson's Caring Model and by oy's Adaptation Model of nursing complement my clinical training in a manner that I believe enables me to contribute the most to my patients, to my profession, and to myself as a nurse.

eferences

Dobratz, M.C. "Moving nursing science forward within the framework of the oy

Adaptation Model." Nursing Science Quarterly, Vol. 21; (2008): 255-259.

Fawcett, J. (2005). Analysis and Evaluation of Conceptual Models of Nursing, St. Louis,

MO: Mosby.

Pipe, T.B., Kelly, a., LeBrun, G.; Schmidt, D., Atherton, P., and obinson, C. "A

prospective descriptive study exploring hope, spiritual well-being, and quality of…

ABC/123 Version X

Nursing Philosophies, Models, and Theories Worksheet

HSN/525 Version

Nursing Philosophies, Models, and Theories Worksheet

Choose a separate nursing philosophy, model, and theory and complete the following matrix, or create a matrix of your own for each of the following:

Formal Name of the philosophy, model or theory

Explanation of the main concept of the philosophy, model, and theory.

An example how you would apply the philosophy, model, and theory in your project setting.

Include a minimum of three peer-reviewed journal references. You may include one electronic peer-reviewed source, such as Sigma Theta Tau International, and one reference book, such as a theory textbook.

Complete the grids provided using the information from the textbook and your research.

Nursing Philosophy

Main concept of Philosophy

Project significance

oy Adaptation Model (AM)

The oy Adaptation Model (AM) for Nursing originated with the lifelong work of Sister Callista oy. The Adaptive Model…

Nursing Philosophy

Concept Synthesis on Personal Nursing Philosophy

Nursing Autobiography

My interest in nursing peaked at an early age when I attended Clara Barton High School for health professions in Brooklyn NY and graduated in 1991. I first worked as a nurse's aide and home health aide for about two years and found this position to be quite rewarding. I subsequently moved to North Carolina where I took the CNA course in 1995 and began working as a CNA at various nursing homes and hospitals in the regional area. My experience as a CNA certainly helped me in my journey and provided the foundation for the later developments in my career.

Later I moved to Las Vegas in 1997 where I got married in 1998. After forming this union I went back to school for my BSN in 2002 while working as a CNA. I finished my BSN from Nevada…

That nurse must go deeper than the superficiality of "nursing helps people maintain health (Nursing Philosophy it Matters, 2012).

"The fight against post-operative wound infections has long been undertaken by practitioners. We appreciate that surgical site infections (SSIs) are frequently caused by bacteria commonly found on the skin. Therefore, reducing the number of bacteria on the skin has been a common preoperative practice. Standards and recommended practices from the Association of periOperative egistered Nurses (AON) state preoperative skin preparation of surgical patients should include little or no hair removal, cleansing of the area around the surgical site, and use of an antiseptic agent immediately before the surgical incision" (amsey, 2012).

The clinical implications of this practice might be to shave or clip the hair before surgery but there is no evidence that it does or does not reduce infections. It is done to make sure there are no possible infections…

Moreover, I feel that patients must empower themselves to become healthier. New technologies and access to a wealth of information on the Internet is helping patients learn more about their bodies so that health care becomes accessible to everyone. As nurses, we need to listen to what the patient's priorities are. If the patient prefers alternative medicine to what the doctor recommends then we should be willing to let the patient choose as long as we inform them of all possible outcomes. Instead of expecting the health care system to rescue them from destructive lifestyle choices, patients need their nurses to counsel them on improving their eating and exercise habits and reducing stress. To reduce stress in our own lives, we nurses need to learn how to remain positive and life-affirming. At the same time, we need to learn how to address sensitive issues related to death and dying, grief…

In the previous section, Estabrooks raised the question of the ability of the EP framework to provide the "best evidence" in nursing practice and the danger of excluding nurses in decision-making tasks as a result of EP prevalence and dominance.

Rolfe, while he analyzed the empirical foundations of EP, also looked at it from a practical perspective, or how EP is applied in the current practice of nursing. Identifying the problem of EP as the question of its "technical rationality," Rolfe uncovered an important issue that best describes also Estabrooks' contentions in her article: the "theory-practice" gap in nursing practice.

In thoroughly discussing this phenomenon in nursing, Rolfe illustrated how theory-practice gap occurs in the practice scenario (39):

First, that nurses rarely read research reports; second, that when they do read them, they rarely understand them; and third, even when they do read and understand research reports, they are reluctant…

Nursing Timeline Week 2 • Create a 700- 1,050-word timeline paper historical development nursing science, starting Florence Nightingale continuing present. • Format timeline, word count assignment requirements met

Historical development of nursing timeline

The foundation of modern nursing. Before, nursing was largely the profession of disreputable people and not exclusively female. Based on her experiences during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale strove to make it a respectable profession with uniform, professional standards. Her approach reduced the death toll in hospitals by 2/3rds during the Crimean War (Florence Nightingale, 2012, Biography: 1). She established the Nightingale Training School and wrote her foundational Notes on Nursing (Florence Nightingale, 2012, Biography: 2-3). Nightingale's canons of nursing compromised everything from an emphasis on proper sanitation to how the nurse should socially interact with the patient.

1880: Famed Civil War nurse Clara Barton founds the American ed Cross.

1909. Hildegard Peplau is born. Heavily influenced…

Personal Nursing Philosophy

My Nursing Autobiography

I have dreamt of being a nurse all my life. My mother and older cousins tell me stories of how I loved to line up my dolls and animals, place bandages over them to nurse their 'injuries' and stick branches in their armpits to have a feel of their temperature. Well, I believe these stories because to this day, these are the very things that keep my life going; I derive so much satisfaction from just being able to help people when they are in no position to help themselves. I took an elective nursing course in high school, where I was supposed to report at the local facility at least once every week to assist in the administration of basic care to patients. This marked the beginning of my career in nursing, and since then, I have logged almost 15 years of experience…

MAKETING VS. CS

Henderson Nursing Philosophy

classification of theories Grid

Virginia Henderson

Classification Focus

Historical Period

She graduated from her first nursing program in 1921 and her career was at its apex in the 1970's as she was one of the more prominent authors of nursing textbooks through the 1970's (and before that dating back to the late 1950's). She was a research associated at Yale until she died in 1996. She died that same year at the age of 1998. Basically, her career was active in some form for nearly seven decades but it was highest in the middle part from the 1950's to 1970's.

Educational background

Virginia Henderson started her medicine career after she graduated from the United States Army School of Nursing in about 1921. She later received her bachelor's degree in 1931 and her master's degree. Her Bachelor of Science as well as her master's from…

Nursing: Nursing Virtues

Nursing Virtues: Nursing

Nursing Virtues

Virtues can be defined simply as the habits of character that predispose persons to do what is right and moral. In the nursing profession, virtues are the habits that promote and affirm the values of independence, health, respect, well-being, and human dignity. Four virtues have been shown to be central to the nursing profession and its practice: compassion, humility, courage and integrity. Nurses are expected to conduct themselves within the provisions of these four virtues at all times. Elizabeth Pask's article, 'Self-sacrifice, Self-transcendence, and Nurses' Professional Self' demonstrates perfectly how nurses can be guided by these four virtues to make the right decisions when faced with difficult circumstances in their practice. The subsequent sections detail how each of these four virtues influence an individual's practice, and what a nurse leader could do to support the growth of virtues and enable nurses fulfill…

According to the South Carolina Nurse Practice Act, the practice of nursing includes "the provision of services for compensation," and the use of "nursing judgment." Nursing judgment is clearly defined as "the logical and systematic cognitive process of identifying pertinent information and evaluating data in the clinical context in order to produce informed decisions." The South Carolina Nurse Practice Act is lengthier than either of the other two definitions provided here. It deals directly with practical and mundane matters related to the profession such as monetary reward for the practice of nursing; the different classes of nurses, "commensurate with the educational preparation," and other official areas of interest: "Nursing practice occurs in the state in which the recipient of nursing services is located." While this definition lacks the inclusion of terms like "compassion," nurses must be firmly grounded in the practical matters of the profession as outlined by the Nurse…

" (1) What does the phrase "concept inventing" mean to you?

2) Does the process of concept inventing add clarity to a unique lived experience that aides in individualizing patient care? - or - Does the process of concept inventing add unnecessary jargon to the profession of nursing which creates barriers in collaboration with other disciplines? (3) State your stance on this issue and create a logical argument to defend your thoughts.

C. (1). "Concept inventing" can be thought of as a way to analyze situations in such a way as to contemplate their meaning to create understanding. Using both the aspects of science, including logic, rationality, and empirical analysis, and art, including intuition, emotion, integrity, honor, and compassion, nurses can process information in such a way as to create a complete conceptual picture of both the abstract aspects and concrete facts of a situation. In doing so, nurses can…

Nurse-Patient Relations

The main focus of this essay is going to concern the nurse-patient relationship idea, and why it is important. This was chosen because the researcher desired to achieve a better accepting of how a helpful nurse-patient relationship can be advanced and even from different theorists who have discovered this idea. In this essay, the researcher sets out to demonstrate what they have learnt regarding the nurse-patient relation concept and how this connection can utilized in the clinical practice setting. T The nurse patient connection, according to a study done by Press Gamey Associates Inc., creates the quality of the care experience and generates an influential influence on patient gratification. Nurses will a lot of their time with patients. Patients see nurses' relations with people among the care team and make their own conclusions about the hospital founded on what they are observing. Furthermore, nurses' approaches toward their vocation,…

Nurse Eduactor Strategic Plan

Nurse educator strategic plan

A strategic plan for a nurse educator

At present, I would say that my greatest strength as a nurse educator is my willingness to challenge myself in the pursuit of excellence. Within the next year, I will obtain my MSN with a specific concentration in education. Previously, I obtained certification as a Basic Life Support instructor (BLS). Also within the next year I intend to seek out certification in Advance Cardiac Live Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Life Support Instructor (PAL) with the intention of becoming both an ACLS and PALS instructor. These will enhance my capabilities as a nurse educator and provide greater specificity in the range and types of teaching I will be able to convey.

My second great strength as a nurse educator is the compassion I have for my patients and my genuine love of teaching. A nurse is…

A person's health is an ever-changing state of being resulting from the interaction with the environment. Optimum health is the actualization of both innate and obtained human potential gained through rewarding relationships with others, obtaining goals and maintaining expert personal care. Adaptations can be made as required to maintain stability and structural integrity. A person's state of health can vary from wellness to illness, disease, or dysfunction. Professional nursing is founded on the need to promote wellness practices, the attentive treatment of persons who are acutely or chronically ill or dying, and restorative care of patients during convalescence and rehabilitation. It also includes the education and measurement of those who perform or are learning to perform nursing responsibilities, the support and communication of research to enhance knowledge and practice, and the management of nursing in healthcare delivery systems. Nursing practice centers on the application of a body of knowledge in…

During this era, however, nurses continued to gain a foothold within the field of care as important elements to patient recovery and success.

This was further echoed in the era directly following such a tumultuous times as the 1960s. During the 1970s, the idea of a much more solid and accredited education began to pick up further speed (Burns 2004:19). Schools were now responsible to the State and national standards, such as the ones put forth by the National League for Nursing. Another major improvement seen in nursing education was the creation of specified nursing programs which offered advanced degrees within specialized fields of nursing. It opened up the opportunity for many nursing students to gain an unprecedented expertise on various specialties not seen before in earlier generations. In the professional field, the implementation of "participatory nursing" which allowed for nurses to embody greater roles within the context of care…

It is critical that NHAs are first qualified nurses, as their ability to relate to other nurses is essential to the organizational success of the nursing home ("Nursing home administrator jobs," 2011). Career paths for an NHA are rooted with education background and nursing experience. Although experience is necessary for being a successful NHA, a career path at minimum requires clinical licensing (Decker, & Castle, 2009).

The NHA is the management body over the facility, and their positions are in high demand. In the U.S. In 2008, approximately 17,000 nursing home administrators were responsible for the oversight of care for 1 million elderly adults and 1.3 million employees (Leister, 2009). Overseeing a large nursing staff, as well as vulnerable residents, are the daily demands of the NHA. The future of NHA field is concerning to researchers and professionals, as the number of licensed NHAs is on the decline. In Maryland,…

Nurse Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking and Other Intellectual Skills: Documented Benefits and Skill Application in Nursing

There are many academic skills that are necessary for nursing students that also serve nurses well in professional practice. This paper will examine three such academic skills both in their general benefits to learners and professionals in all sectors and personally to my own advances in nursing knowledge and practice. Active reading, effective writing, and critical thinking skills are essential tools for helping one to properly take in, analyze, and communicate information in efficient and effective manners, and each of these individual thinking areas benefits the other two, as well. There are certain challenges that one might be face with in acquiring these skills, and I will detail my own personal challenges below following a general investigation of benefits and prior to a discussion of my application of these skills.

Benefits

Psychologist Benjamin Bloom…

The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists - The NACNS was founded in 1995, specifically to enhance and promote the unique and high-value contributions that clinical nurses make to the health and well-being of individuals, families, groups, and communities in their particular branch of healthcare. They also have a foundation, scholarship programs, a journal and discussion portal, various levels of conferences, scholarship programs, honors and awards, and the ability for advanced certification. A Clinical Nurse Specialist is a licensed N who has graduate preparation (MA or PhD) in nursing specifically as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. This field of healthcare goes beyond the duties of an LPN or N, or even charge nurse, and deals with either advanced levels of clinical specialization, or broader, community and national health concerns. The field requires a rather significant academic bent, and the association is designed to support and enhance that paradigm focus (CNS -…

"From an historical standpoint, her concept of nursing enhanced nursing science this has been particularly important in the area of nursing education." ("Virginia Henderson's Need...," 2008) Principles of Henderson's theory, published in numerous primary nursing textbooks utilized from the 1930s through the 1960s, along with principles embodied by the 14 activities continue to prove vital in evaluating nursing care in thee21st century, not only in cases such as Keri's, but in a myriad of others benefiting from nursing.

eferences

Kearney, Kathleen M., the Nurse's Duty to eport Child Abuse vs. The Attorney's Duty of Confidentiality: The Nurse Attorney's Dilemma Journal of Nursing Law. Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc.; January 25, 2007. etrieved September 25, 2007, at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1256366.

esuggan, ay N;PN;MN. (Last Modified: August 17, 2008). "Virginia Avernal Henderson." Nurses.info. etrieved September 25, 2007, from: http://www.nurses.info/nursing_theory_person_henderson_virginia_.htm.

Singleton, Joanne K. "Nurses' perspectives of encouraging clients' care-of-self in a short-term rehabilitation unit within…

Nursing Home

eport on Conditions at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

The following report is based on extensive observation of the conditions for patients living at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. While some patients received moderate care, overall, the quality of care in this facility was appalling. All patients -- all people -- deserve to be treated with dignity, and this was far from the case. The conditions were especially distressing given that in general they could be fixed or at least ameliorated relatively easily. Not all of the ills of old age or disability can be remedied, of course. Pain and fear will be present even with the best possible care. Given that this is true, all possible efforts must be made to reduce fear, anxiety, and pain to the greatest degree possible.

The facts that this report is based on were documented by…

Nursing Sills

Grayce Sills and Nursing Leadership

Brief Biography:

Grayce Sills dedicated her life's work to improving conditions for psychiatric health patients, both through reforms in the area of psychiatric nursing and through education of future generations of nurses. During the era succeeding orld ar II, the psychiatric nursing profession was making its first forays into mainstream treatment orientation. Grayce Sills would emerge into the profession during this time and, in the late 1950s and 1960s, would observe that the conditions to which psychiatric patients were often treated at this juncture were abhorrent, inhumane and inconsistent with the standards otherwise sought in general patient treatment. As a student of Hildegard Peplau, whom she refers to as the mother of psychiatric nursing, Sills would come to appreciate the need for greater demonstration of caring and compassion in this subsection of the nursing profession. (Barker, p. 79) Earning a Bachelor's Degree from…

Nightingale's philosophy demanded a completely clean and sterile environment in order to best provide for a healthy recovery of patients in need. This is also seen in Martinsen's philosophy and the way it approaches nursing care and practice as a meticulous science.

However, Nightingale's philosophies presented a passive patient, who did not really engage in their own health care strategies. These patients were not involved in the manipulation of the environment around them in order to best facilitate successful care strategies. Rather, the nurses and physicians seemed to work autonomously and outside of the patient's involvement. This isolated the very people who were receiving care and created a situation where the patient could not contribute to the strategy of care of the process of recovery. On the other hand, Martinsen's philosophy is very much influenced by phenomenology. Thus, Martinsen's philosophy of care is centered more around treating the patients and…

The nurse is often expected to act and react only with empirical information, however personal knowledge is considered equally as important by many nurse educators and researchers (Chinn & Kramer 2004). This also helps to explain why "health" and "environment" are considered distinct major components in the metastudy of nursing; both can be understood on highly subjective terms, with the concept of "good health" changing from patient to patient, or "person" to "person." Environment, too, has a major effect on the practice of nursing and the growth of the nursing body of knowledge.

3)

My personal philosophy of nursing centers on the belief that each individual person under my care deserves full attention and the unique application of my knowledge in addressing their immediate and long-term needs and concerns. That is, each person should benefit as much as possible from the full extent of my nursing knowledge, while still being…

In the emergency room, this distinction can have a determinant impact on the ability of the staff to preserve life and diminish pain and suffering.

The introduction of a bioethical perspective into this dialogue invokes a question as to the primacy of an interest in pursuing to the utmost the well-being of the patient. This speaks to one of the core values associating the principles of the ANA with the treatment outcomes desired in patiences. An examination of the ANA's Code of Ethics reveals that a theoretical basis exists to contend a direct correlation between the nurse's self-interest and that which is best for any given patient. There exists an essential obligation for such healthcare practitioners to "examine the conflicts arising between their own personal and professional values, the values and interests of others who are responsible for patient care and health care decisions, as well as those of the…

Nursing

Ethical Compassion in Nursing

hat personal, cultural, and spiritual values contribute to your worldview and philosophy of nursing? How do these values shape or influence your nursing practice?

The role played by the nurse professional is highly consequential to the health outcomes experiences by patients. This means that the nursing profession must be highly regulated by clearly defined and positively reinforced ethical provisions. These provisions are given by the ANA Nursing Code of Ethics and, in my personal experiences, are imperative as a way of dictating how we, as professionals, are expected to engage patients, required to relate to colleagues and trained to respect human dignity. This connection between ethicality and treatment quality contributes both to my personal worldview and to the broader field of nursing. ith specific reference to my experiences in the NICU and maternity wards, this connection takes on particular importance. Here, quality outcomes mean sound,…

Nursing Concept

Theoretical Background

One of the complexities of 21st century medicine is the evolution of nursing care theories in combination with a changing need and expectation of the stakeholder population. Nurses must be advocates and communicators, but must balance these along with an overall philosophy of ethics while still remaining mindful of budgets and the need for the medical institution to be profitable. It seems as if these issues comprise a three-part template for nursing: respect for patient value & individuality, education of patients, and cognition and respect for the realities of contemporary medicine. In many ways, too, modern technology has advanced further than societal wisdom, especially when confronting the issue of death. The modern nurse's role is to create a nurse-patient culture that encourages the individual to take responsibility for their healthcare and, in partnership with the nurse, to be involved in their recovery. The modern complexities of…

Nurse Patient atios and Quality of Care

This study reviews the broad level of issues that surround the nurse/patient ratio: a critical shortage of trained and experienced nurses; increased political and fiscal demands from all sectors of society; rising costs internally and externally combined with a rising number of under-insured; and the conundrum of nursing ethics and the ability to foster excellence in care and patient advocacy. We note that there remains an issue about hiring more nurses -- where will these nurses come from if the nursing schools do not increase their recruitment efforts and broaden their curriculum. In addition, we note that the large majority of patients and stakeholders primarily want two things when admitted to a healthcare facility: better paid nurses and more highly-trained professionals who are satisfied with their vocation.

Introduction

Modern nursing is, by necessity, a mixture of complex balance: patient care vs. staffing; procedures…

Nursing and Erickson Psychosocial Developmental Theory

The objective of this study is to examine Erikson's psychosocial Developmental theory and to discuss how one might apply the theory to their selected nursing practice including a brief description of the theory, framework or philosophy.

The stages of psychosocial development proposed in the work of Erikson include personality stages, psychosexual modes, psychosocial modality and accompanying virtue. These are shown in the following chart labeled Figure 1 in this study.

Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory Stages, Modes, Modality and Virtues

Personality Stage

Psychosexual Mode

Psychosocial Modality

"Virtue"

Trust vs. Mistrust

incorporative1

incorporative2

getting taking

Hope

Autonomy vs. Shame, Doubt

retentive eliminative holding on letting go

Willpower

Inititative vs. Guilt intrusive making

Purpose

Industry vs. Inferiority

Competence

Identity vs. ole Confusion

Fidelity

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Love

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Care

Integrity vs.Despair

Wisdom

Source: Davis (1995, p. 1)

I. Use of This Theory in the Nursing…

Nursing Problem: Shortage of Nurses in Healthcare

Nursing Shortage

The researcher works at Phoebe Memorial Hospital, where there is an extreme nursing shortage. Without an adequate amount of nurses, patient care and safety may turn out to be compromised, while nurses themselves may be stunned, upset, and dissatisfied. At the researcher's workplace, high patient-to-nurse ratios has been displaying that there is a lot of frustration and job burnout, which is linked to higher yield. At Phoebe, there is an inadequately staffed nursing force which has been discovered to play a negative part in patient results. In difference, studies have confirmed that hospitals like Phoebe Memorial Hospital with low nurse turnover are the ones that have the lowest rates of risk-adjusted death and severity-adjusted span of stay.

There is no very exact way of describing the concept of nursing shortage at the Phoebe Memorial Hospital Phoebe, but a report of this…

Nursing Theory Framework

Attachment Theory

ecognizing Addiction through Attachment Theory

Affect egulation and Addiction

Handling Addiction as an Attachment Disorder

The First Phase of Therapy

Concepts

Autonomy

Beneficence

Nonmaleficence

Nursing Theory Framework

The misappropriation of prescription drugs by teens in the United States is a growing public health issue. Using a nursing theory framework, the scope of the problem of prescription drug use among teens is reviewed. Equal in variety to manifestations of addiction are sundry psychological theories that attempt to explain and treat the problem. Hardy (2011) was able to look into four traditional models for recognizing alcoholism (social learning theory, tension reduction theory, personality theory, and interactional theory,) in addition to five theoretical models that were developing at the time of their writing.

An approach to treating and understanding addiction that has created a huge amount of research in current decades, and which displays big promise for effective…

Nursing and Ethics

The emotional debate over abortion had been mischaracterized in the media, and hence disrupted any positive attempt to make progress in resolving the ethical and medical problems which have been created by the practice. A majority of Americans recognize and desire that abortion should be available when the life of the mother is at risk, or in the cases of rape or incest. However, liberal proponets like to expand this definition under the ubiquitous definition of the 'mothers health' which has been used to justify abortion on demand, for any reason. This latter expanded definition is significantly opposed by a majority of the ameircan population. In the midst of this struggle, comes the person needing medical care, who has neither been properly informed as to the dangers of the paractive, nor adequately counseled as to the options which exist regarding the future of her unborn child. The…

This is one of the most common forms of research and, for some research questions is clearly a strong design (Ethics in Critical Care Nursing Research, 2005).

The research that was done in this article would be considered a non-experimental type. There were two types of observation that were conducted. The first type was that of focus groups and the second being the file audit, both of which are observational in nature. In this case this was the most appropriate type of research design to use. Since they were simply trying to see what was actually going on in this area and how that was affecting patients the only real way to tot this was by observation. From this article a nursing care issue that can be raised is that of how palliative care nurses manage family involvement with end of life issues. Are there any standard procedures that are…

, 2010). It is perfectly conceivable that this nurse leader would welcome more collaborative or shared leadership responsibilities, particularly since the setting for empirical clinical research on this very issue was, in fact, an ICU (osengren, Bondas, Nordholm, et al., 2010).

Finally, it appears from this interview subject's input into this project that she is a competent and effective nursing leader, largely by virtue of her description of her supervisory and administrative style and inclination. However, her input lacked any substantial data on the basis of which a reviewer could evaluate her effectiveness as a clinical leader more specifically. Those particular skill sets may occur in combination but they undoubtedly also occur individually within different leaders (Stanley & Sherratt, 2010). A review of historical literature (such as in connection with Florence Nightingale) clearly demonstrates that good nursing leaders may or may not necessarily also be equally good clinical leaders (Stanley…

Philosophy: Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders: Money, Sexuality and Philosophical Views of Issues aised

What are the lessons to be learned from the novel Moll Flanders -- the lessons in terms of historical relevance, social values, personal values and goals, and of the need for a survivable, solid income for each individual? How is philosophy tied into those lessons? And what do philosophers Immanuel Kant and Carole Pateman contribute to the overall understanding of what is presented in the novel? What

This paper proposes to offer insights on -- and germane examples of -- human behavior patterns and the philosophical view of how to interpret those behaviors. This paper will not moralize, or take strong positions on one side or another; on the contrary, the materials presented will attempt to first digest and then represent what the novel and the philosophers' views have to offer the reader.

After all, a novel…

Even the much despised soccer is popular amongst American youths. Yet Americans cheer on their favorite individual stars in all of these sports, especially if the starts engage in charity efforts to justify their bloated salaries. The tension remains about what good sports do for both the individual or society, and Americans today are clearly using sports as a means of practical self-improvement like the Greeks as well as a means of collective identification like the English: "in the 1950's or 1960's, few people exercised; baseline fitness-consciousness was just above zero. Today, 20% of the U.S. population works out on a regular basis, while an additional 60%+ can be classified as...'Consciousness III' -- those persuaded of physical fitness, but who by their own admission, don't get enough exercise. As behavior lags enlightened attitudes, 4 out of 5 adult Americans are true believers in exercise and fitness." But the protests remain…

This is a theoretical approach which assumes that the nurse will base all treatment decisions on an interest in achieving the patient's best overall health outcome. In light of this, there may be great value in approaching treatment with a cultural sensitivity to the diversity of needs which accompany the inherent diversity of individuals to be treated. Here, the healthcare practitioner must be particular immune to prejudices of an ethnic, racial, sexual or personal nature, with equal treatment quality and personal attention expected for all patrons of the medical system. This is why it is important for members of the healthcare community to be acquainted not just with the idea of a multitude of groups in its public, but with some level of understanding as to how different ethnic groups endure different health scenarios. The way that the nursing professional approaches healing -- with respect to the balance of personal…

Either style may be beneficial in some situations but detrimental to organizational objectives (i.e. patient health and welfare) in others. A typical example of an appropriate use of authoritarian leadership would be in a working group consisting of individuals who have varying degrees of expertise and professional experience, particularly if they also have little experience working together as a group. On the other hand, the democratic style might be more appropriate in working groups consisting of very similarly skilled individuals with similar degrees of experience, especially where they have also worked together extensively and have demonstrated good self-management, decision-making, and collaboration within the group.

Leadership vs. Management

The principal difference between leadership and management is that leadership pertains more to people whereas management pertains more to operations (Marquis & Huston, 2008). Generally, organizational leadership involves improving the organization by addressing motivational issues and other factors that contribute to the morale…

The pathways scheme aims to offer opportunities for every grade of practitioner. This is part of a national process that anticipates quality improvement as a continuously evolving process.

Achieving fair and equal access to professional development for nurses and healthcare providers in the private sector has been difficult in the past. Education has sometimes been viewed as expensive and time-consuming, with staff release for learning difficult to achieve especially acute staff shortages are a definable obstacle already to effective treatment provision. However, it is vital to the principle of performance improvement and the pursuit of standardizing quality outcomes that healthcare provision be based on the active pursuit of staff excellence. This is to be seen as a far more desirable approach to personnel orientation than the imposition of sanctions for poor performance. Central to this is the need for improvement of the local facility's knowledge economy. To this extent, knowledge…

The modern nurse must then be willing to move beyond a simple catch-all of medical jargon and bureaucracy and become someone who is both supportive and critical of the system. This may seem dichotomous, but in reality is not. The system is designed with beneficence in mind -- to help the patient at all costs. It is thus up to the nurse advocate to ensure that that actually happens (Sheldon, 2009).

Undertake assessments which are sensitive to the needs of the patient- Assessment is one of the key factors in management of clinical medicine. The nurse is often at the forefront of that process simply due to the logistical nature of the situation -- taking vitals, preparing the patient for blood work, etc. However, it is in two particular areas that the nurse can be most effective when assessing the actual needs of the patient; culturally and when questions are…

Consider the case of Mr. a, the irrational quadriplegic who has little movement from the neck down, and lives in a nursing home. He is irrational in his behavior, and often demands very explicit forms of treatment, and then rejects or refuses these treatments or other treatments. He has become violent on occasion, and has created problems between patients and staff. He has been expelled from one nursing home, and may be from another. The home is bound to treat him, as he desires care and chose the nursing home. However, if he harms staff or other patients in any way, the nursing home is bound to provide a safe environment, and Mr. A is a detriment to the health and safety of others. In that case, the facility can refuse treatment for the good of the many, rather than the good of one patient. The author of the article…

Of course, as Medicare beneficiaries increase because of the number of baby boomers, the Medicare program may adjust. However, current hospice figures demonstrate that only about twenty percent of all elderly individuals that die are enrolled in hospice programs.

Implementation and Monitoring

The needs of this new program will require thorough training and once implemented, precise monitoring. "When you approach a problem in the way your work group functions, you're implementing an organizational change. By taking a critical look at your process, and using some theories from organizational design, you can fix the problem -- and change your organization to make quality more likely." (Derby, 1999) The training will be a key because of the potential requirements associated with the Hospice program that may require completely new skill sets for the majority of our staff. The fact is that many of our nurses may not have acquired the necessary skills…