Personal Philosophy of Nursing
Every profession has its core values. For nursing the core values include respect, integrity, care and compassion, professional responsibility, and understanding. These values are grounded upon the broader spectrum of moral and ethical commitments based on the scope of nursing that involves a relationship between environment, patients, and society. These core values are nurtured from the schooling level irrespective of whether students will end up as certified practitioners or registered nurses.
Nurses must exercise integrity towards patients and fellow colleagues to achieve the best patient care while also providing decent medical environments. This is achievable through a sustained professionalism, self-dedication, and continuous learning. The character of nurses must extend beyond their work environment into their private lives. Further, nurses who are in management positions must uphold professional competence in all decision-making processes and create an environment that nurtures virtuous nursing practices.
As regards professional responsibilities, nurses have ethical duties towards the nursing profession and their respective domains. Among key responsibilities is that nurses must endeavor to improve their work environments and to try to maximize the quality of service delivery. They also have a duty to work with other health professionals in the private and public sectors to improve healthcare at local institutions and at various community levels.
Care and compassion require nurses to safeguard the patients’ well-being considering that patients are susceptible to infection and injury. Nurses therefore ensure that patients’ surroundings remain secure and healthy. This is achieved through ensuring that patients have access to clean water, maintaining hygiene in patient rooms, and ensuring that persons attending to patients wash their hands before attending to the patient. Nurses are responsible for monitoring and reporting any symptoms about the improvement or decline of patients’ health to the doctors. Furthermore, nurses evaluate the home settings, deal with and offer important counsel to patients and their respective families.
Respect is an important aspect in the nursing profession. Nurses must respect the value and dignity of their colleagues and patients. Treating all people equally irrespective of their standing in society or personal attributes is the best way to show respect for everyone. This should also apply to the right of patients to self-determination with regard to their health care.
Social context and social concerns influence personal desires in the pursuit of a better life within the context of personal philosophy. These aspects influence social norms which in effect are customary rules that govern the behavior of nurses in their individual capacity and as a group. Thus social context and concerns ensures that a sense of self-discipline is inculcated in individual nurses such that they do not merely respond to the rules and regulations. Social context and social concerns are therefore important concepts that drive personal philosophy.
Knowledge base for nursing practice regards to the grounding of the nursing practice in evidence (DiCenso, 2003). Evidence centered nursing practice provide a broad understanding to human beings. This approach helps nurses to achieve accountability and enable them appreciate and uphold integrity among other health related disciplines. Through knowledge based practices, nurses are able to influence policy-making processes at various governance levels.
Accordingly, knowledge based practices influence personal philosophy as nurses seek to understand patients’ emotional and physical contexts before seeking to offer health care. It is through proper understanding that nurses are able to achieve the overall care of patients and to offer care that improves the mental, physical, and social welfare of the patients.
References
DiCenso, A. (2003). Research: Evidence-based Nursing Practice: How to Get There from Here.
Nursing Leadership, 16(4): 20-26. Accessed From http://www.longwoods.com/content/16257
