Personal, cultural, and spiritual values contribute to your worldview and philosophy of nursing. How do these values shape or influence your nursing practice
An individual’s value determines or is the reason that makes a person to pursue nursing. Nursing as a profession involves the taking care of sick individuals and nursing them to health. Personal values will determine how a person does his or her work not just from a profession perspective but also from an ethical perspective. A significant personal value is integrity. Integrity refers to always doing the right thing whether in the company of people or when alone. Without having integrity one can easily abuse the nursing profession in a number of ways. As a nurse, one usually has access to a number of drugs that can easily be abused or stolen and sold for financial gain. Having integrity helps to keep oneself in check hence preventing situations that may cause harm to the patient and destroy one’s professional nursing career.
Additionally, empathy is a value that needs to be embedded in a person’s philosophy of nursing. Patients normally undergo stressful and sometimes painful experiences while seek. Sickness also affects the families of the patients and some may have trouble coping with the sickness. Having empathy ensures that one does not view the patients as work only but also as human beings that need to be helped. Without empathy, it becomes difficult for the nurse to help the patient or his family hence the outcome of a sickness may be even worse than it was at the beginning. Empathy may greatly reduce cases of depression in both the patient and the patient’s family.
Culture is an important factor in promoting the cohesion of a society. Thus, it is important for a nurse to exercise cultural competence in the execution of his or her duties. According to Dossey and Keegan (2013), cultural competence relates to the ability to deliver healthcare with knowledge of and sensitivity to cultural factors, which influence the healing, curing, dying and grieving processes of a person. Some of the cultural values include responsibility, accountability and collectivism. Families are crucial in the transmission of these cultural values (Andrews and Boyle, 2008). Through family, it has been possible to learn behaviors that relate to maintaining one’s health and wellness of other people in the family. This has spilled over in the nursing profession in the sense that without family one finds it difficult to cope with problems of everyday life. Understanding the importance of family helps me to be able to plan for interventions and therapy approaches that may be helpful to the client and his family.
Furthermore, as a nurse I need to be accountable for my actions. To achieve the goal of caring for individuals, accountability ensures quality in delivery of services in the nursing profession. As a nurse, one needs to be in a position to explain to the family members of the patient the current conditions and different approaches that can be used or followed based on the developing condition of the patient. It is my belief that having a cultural approach to nursing care may greatly assist in improving access to care for different individuals. Collectivism helps in suppressing the needs of an individual nurse and reinforces the needs of the people the nurses serve.
Spiritual values such as compassion help me to develop the desire to help individuals from all lifestyles. Furthermore, having compassion helps in providing the best quality of care to individuals no matter their level of poverty or wealth. Furthermore, understanding a patient’s spiritual background may help in developing a better care plan, which takes into consideration and respects the spiritual values of the patient.
Values, Morals and Ethics
Values relate or define a person’s worth and are significant in influencing decisions people make especially in ethical situations. As a nurse, one performs his or her duty out of a deeper conviction rather than a work conviction. Personal values are shaped religious beliefs family values and life experiences (Kasar and Clark, 2000). Certain personal values such as respect for life my result to ethical dilemmas where the medical profession may prefer a course of action or treatment that is not in line with my own personal beliefs, for instance, on the issue of taking a patient from life support. Based on my own values of respect for life, I may disagree with the idea of ending someone’s life.
Morals relate to the values as nurse that I can base on certain spiritual aspects and a higher power. My personal values are guided by a sense of morality. These moral values include empathy, compassion and honesty. Issues of ethical dilemma arise when working as a group of nurses. One nurse may choose not to follow the code of conduct or guidelines of the nursing profession. As a nurse, I am obligated to report the matter to the concerned authorities if such a situation arises. However, the nurse in question may be a friend and I may not want to be held responsible for her or him losing a job.
Ethics is concerned with the actions I take as a nurse. Acting ethically implies acting in ways constant with my personal beliefs. In an effort of showing compassion and taking care of a patient, there might be a chance where helping the patient in certain cases may seem to be unethical. Developing relationships with patients away from a professional point of view sometimes results to unethical behavior even though both parties may agree.
Reflection
Some of the ethical and moral dilemmas a nurse may face include pro-choice versus prolife decisions. Such decisions are heavily influenced by a nurse’s personal values and beliefs. Each decision has its own consequences. For instance, allowing patient to live longer by seeking other therapeutic means may lead to certain side effects from the therapy, which in some cases may be life draining to the patient. Additionally, having to let a patient make certain choices introduces an ethical dilemma. Does the patient have the right mental capacity to make certain choices? My personal beliefs and views will ultimately determine if I act ethically or unethically. This implies that my behavior and decisions need to address what is best for the patient and uphold all nursing professional standards. According to Lundy and Janes (2009), a nurse needs to respect a patient’s autonomy. This implies respecting an individual’s choice or decision.
PASSION: Why am I here?
Love for humanity.MOTIVATION: What moves me to act?
The family values instilled I me that focuses on love for humanity.INSPIRATION: What keeps me in motion?
Being in a position where I can help individuals who are suffering.LOYALTY: Whom do I serve?
I serve a higher power.
References
Andrews, M. M., & Boyle, J. S. (2008). Transcultural concepts in nursing care. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Clark, E. N., & Kasar, J. (2000). Developing professional behaviors. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Inc.
Dossey, B. M., & Keegan, L. (2013). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Lundy, K. S., & Janes, S. (2009). Community health nursing: Caring for the public's health. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
