Nursing can be a seriously demanding job. It can be demanding in terms of time, physical effort, and most importantly mental and intellectual effort. Nursing is not just a profession but also an outlet for passion . At first, I thought that nursing was just a profession in the healthcare industry that involves assisting doctors and other medical professionals in doing their job, which most of the time leads down to taking care of the patients and addressing their medical needs. It was not long until I realized that that perception was not only ambiguous but also sort of distorted because nursing, like I said in my opening statement is not just a profession—a seriously demanding profession at that, but also an outlet for passion.
A good nurse is a passionate nurse. With all the hardships I encountered to attain a registered medical and surgical nurse practitioner, from the time I was in college up until the time I started practicing what I have studied for years, I can say that without passion, I would have already failed and put myself in an entirely different line of work or profession.
My philosophy in nursing is simple. Every single time I am assigned to take care of a patient, or patients—most of the time, I always think of them as members of my family. If one of our family members would be admitted to a hospital, as an allied medical professional, I would want to see that family member receive the best possible medical care he could receive. Now this want would contradict the interests of professional nurses who are not passionate with what they are doing, or those who are only waiting to get their salaries every 15th of the month or so. I have encountered a lot of allied medical professionals who behave like this in medical centers. They accept patients and I have seen firsthand how they take their profession for granted. I do not know about them but it evidently appears that they do not like what they are doing—nursing, any longer. But that is not me. Every time I see a patient, I always program my mind to think of that patient as a family member. That way, when I administer any prescribed treatment or medical management by the doctors, I can be sure myself, that that would be the best way how I can deliver that treatment or management because I would always want the best for the members of our family.
I also believe that teamwork is an important part of being a nurse. A nurse’s work involves coordinating with the physicians, surgeons, rehabilitation specialists, medical technicians, and other members of a medical or surgical team in order to deliver the best possible medical care to a patient. A nurse who knows how to integrate himself with the entire group of medical professionals is a good nurse. In fact, teamwork is not optional but a requirement in the clinical setting, especially when a patient’s condition affects not just a single organ or organ system
In summary, the philosophy of my nursing practice as a profession and an outlet for my passion revolves around these two pillars: the mindset that every patient should be treated like a member of your own family, and teamwork. Over the years, I have proven that just by knowing the importance of, and actually applying these two in my nursing practice, I would not only survive, I would also thrive.
References
Levsey, K., Campbell, D., & Green, A. (2007). Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Challenges in Securing Federal Support for Graduate Nurses. Journal of Nursing Education, 176-183.
The American Nurses Association. (2012). What is Nursing. The American Nurses Association.
