Values in Nursing Ethical Care
I believe that one of the most important qualities for a successful nurse is responsibility. It is essential for all people to be able to take full responsibility for their actions (Jonasson et al., 2010). It means that it is not wise to blame others for what happens or not happens. Instead, it is better to understand that you make certain choices and you will have to deal with their consequences.
When being a nursing student, responsibility helps to study at high level and to receive appropriate grades, as students who are responsible understand how much time it is required for learning certain material and don’t waste it in vain. A clear realization of consequences of their actions allows students to define priorities in life, which results in effective and interesting learning. It doesn’t mean that there is not opportunity for having personal life and entertaining, it’s just a wise distribution of time between actions you do every day.
In the nursing practice responsibility also helps to define the right priorities and to make the right decisions. When you don’t blame others for the situations that happen in your life, you become more careful when making certain choices, which helps to receive better results in practice and in the personal life.
Another important quality for nurses is honesty and truthfulness. It is necessary to realize this quality in at least two directions – being honest and truthful to yourself and to others. Both directions are essential for successful studying and practice. While being a student, it is very important for me to be honest with myself and not to find some unnecessary excuses when you do something that is not allowed, or that will bring some negative outcomes. It is directly related to responsibility, which is impossible without being truthful to oneself. When being a nurse, being honest to myself will help me take responsibility for my actions.
Honesty and truthfulness to others is also essential (Kozier, 2008). Everyone knows how lies can destroy relationships between people, and in such important profession as nursing it can bring about inexcusable negative results. In the nursing practice it can be explained by the fact that when being in the hospitals people are more vulnerable, than in the everyday circumstances. It means that if they understand that the medical staff is not honest with them, it will harm them very much. I believe that it is always necessary to tell people the truth, but nurses should be able to find such a form of truth presentation that would be the least harmful for people. When being a student, truth allows us to build long-term relationships. The ones, in which lie is present cannot last for a long time.
The next important characteristic is respect. It is important to respect yourself and others. Respect for yourself helps you to become a high-quality professional. Without self-respect it is not possible to achieve any goals in life, be it professional or personal sphere. If you respect yourself, you will not waste your time in vain when studying and in the professional practice.
As for the respect to others, it is important to develop this characteristic to build strong relationships based on trust. It is necessary to trust your colleagues, patients after completing education, and professors and fellow students when studying. When people feel that you don’t respect them, they don’t like it and feel offended. If you know that you will have to communicate with a person in one way or other, it is important to respect him/her, even if you don’t like some characteristics of the person. In this case it is better to find something about the person that you can respect, or at least choose to respect the person just as another personality.
A quality that is also very important in my point of view is kindness (Brown et al., 2009). Nursing is such a profession that has kindness as its basis. Those people who make it the basis tend to become the best professionals in this sphere. It can be explained by the fact that nursing is all about care, which is impossible without being kind to the people you care about. If there is no kindness as a basis, the care of nurse is not sincere and looks like false. When studying to become a nurse, it is important to understand how to show the kindness to people and how to understand them better. It will create a strong foundation for the future professional practice.
Among the other important characteristics that a nurse needs in the practice and in the period of studying there are courage, consideration and concern for others, cooperation duty and competence. I believe that these qualities should form a strong core, which will help the person not only to be a successful professional, but also a happy personality that can fully realize his/her potential.
As for me, I know that so far I developed not all the characteristics to the necessary extent. For instance, it is still hard for me to take full responsibility for my actions and to be honest with myself. I know that it is my weakness, but I try to work every day to turn it into my strength. As for the honesty and truthfulness with others, I succeed to build relationships with people based on trust almost in all the cases, and I know that I will have to work on this quality to make it a rule for me. Kindness is already a basis for my understanding of a profession, and I learn new ways of realizing it every day.
I developed these qualities through careful work on the mistakes that were in my life and through observations of the ways relationships are formed between people. I saw what problems I had when lying to others and to myself and saw that I wasn’t happy in such moments. What I felt was disappointment, irritation and sorrow. So, I started to consciously control my decisions and analyze them carefully. This allowed me to understand in what way it is better to act in different situations and in what way it is better to take my decisions. Kindness was one of those features with which I was brought up, which is why I can definitely say that I worked only to support this characteristic, not to develop it. And I succeeded to do it in a very good way, I think.
So, I tried to show the complexity and multi-level nature of the nursing profession and education as I see it. I think that every nurse has to pay proper attention to developing such characteristics so as to become respected and valued professionals. I believe that when choosing a certain profession, such high-level practice should be a major goal for a person, and I am happy that I understand it at an early stage of my professional growth.
References
Brown, C.E., Wickline, M.A., Ecoff, L., Glaser, D. (2009). Nursing practice, knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers to evidence-based practice at an academic medical center. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(2), 371–381.
Jonasson, L.-L., Liss, P.-E., Westerlind, B., & Bertero, C. (2010). Ethical values in caring encounters on a geriatric ward from the next of kin's perspective: An interview study. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16(1), 20–26.
Kozier, B. (2008). Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process and Practice. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
