NR 501 Week 2 Assignment-My Nursing Philosophy

NR 501 Week 2 Assignment-My Nursing Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of existence that promotes our reflection. Through philosophy, we have a deeper evaluation of how we do things and why we do them the way we do.

Likewise, when philosophy is applied in nursing, it helps us to think critically and evaluate our actions in the way we apply them in our practice. It is important to note that nursing philosophy connects our thinking, our beliefs, and our actions. Nursing philosophy is the basis of nursing theory knowledge and its application in clinical practice. After completing my bachelor’s degree in nursing, I decided to pursue my master’s to advance my nursing knowledge in the professional track. In this paper, I intend to assess how the nursing philosophy affects my nursing practice. This will be done through delving into the values, principles, and beliefs that impact my clinical practice. In assessing the nursing philosophy, I will explain the meaning of nursing, its importance, the nursing theory that influences my practice, the skills, values, and qualities of nurses, and how my nursing career will impact society.

Meaning of Nursing

 Since my childhood, I have always wanted to become a nurse. Throughout my life, I have wanted to help others and the goal of helping people in need. I have always thought it easy to explain what nursing means when asked about it. However, it is more complex than I thought to explain the meaning of nursing in my life. For all my years in nursing practice, I have realized that nursing is more than a career or profession. It is a way of life. Nursing expresses the skills, values, beliefs, and morals we have learned and developed throughout our lives. In this case, nursing means that I should be humbled to be included in other people’s lives by influencing their lives positively, especially in the health journey. All people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and quality health care should be offered to them. According to Andersson et al.(2015), patients must be treated sensitive, inclusive, and holistic. A compassionate, dedicated, and trustworthy nurse should treat them. As a nurse, I should take the initiative to provide support as needed, advocate for quality care, and help my patients make informed decisions to improve their outcomes and meet their healthcare goals.

NR 501 Week 2 Assignment-My Nursing Philosophy

Throughout my life and clinical practice, nursing has been characterized by a practice that involves holistic and empathetic approaches to care. As such, I have continuously developed my values and skills to develop my nursing leadership and educate other nurses on the importance of delivering high-quality care to the nurses. As nurses, we should be committed to providing quality and patient-centered care compassionately and holistically to improve our patients and their family member’s physical and emotional needs. As a nurse leader in my current practice, I strive to encourage and support my team members to achieve goals designed to improve the outcomes of the patients. This is achieved through evidence-based practice, continued learning and development, and effective teamwork.

Importance of Nursing to Me

 Since my childhood, I have always been around nurses. My sister was a nurse, and her friends were nurses as well. I loved how my sister and her friends shared their knowledge and treated their patients passionately. As a profession, nursing is critical because it is rewarding and it is respectable. It is a career that never ceases to give out to other people. In particular, I learn new things in my nursing profession every day.

Moreover, the growth opportunities for nurses are unlimited, and we cannot exhaust them. In my practice, I am usually happy when my patient’s condition improves, and I always provide emotional support to the family members despite the situation of their loved ones. Nursing is essential because it allows nurses to practice their knowledge and other skills like emotional competencies. Seeing my patients recover and their family members are happy motivates me in my practice. My mother always told my sister that she had put a smile on the patient and their family members; that was a blessing from God. As such, although I am paid for it, I would like to count my blessings every day by exploiting and sharing my ability with other people.

Nursing Theory that Guides My Nursing Practice

 Nursing theory is critical to all nurses because it forms the basis and foundation of our practice. In the history of nursing, many nursing theories have been developed, and nurses have used them to implement and develop their knowledge in practice. Nursing theories are studied and implemented in the daily practice of nurses. Over the years, many theories have been developed and evolved to allow nurses to implement the knowledge of the theories into evidence-based nursing practice. It is important to note that nursing theories build our essence as a nurse. They define our practice and the strategies we use to deliver quality care to the patients. As a clinical nurse leader in the perioperative department, I must use the nursing theories and models developed by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN). As noted by Wadsworth et al. (2017), the theories developed by AORN are based on practical research and provide standards for caring for patients. In line with AORN standards, Dorthea Orem’s theory of self-care and Watson’s theory of caring are the fundamental theories that guide my nursing practice.

NR 501 Week 2 Assignment-My Nursing Philosophy

Three different theories are included in the self-care model of Dorthea Orem. These theories include the theory of nursing systems, the theory of self-care deficit, and the theory of self-care. As noted by Younas (2017), the theory of the nursing system explains how nurses use various systems to support the delivery of quality care to patients. The self-care deficit theory explains that there are instances whereby self-care needs outweigh self-care ability. On the other hand, self-care theory explains the importance of taking care of ourselves. Although Orem’s self-care theory assumes that all patients have common needs, in the ambulatory settings, patients are responsible for their care and there is self-reliance. Nonetheless, continued education, assessment, and monitoring are needed for self-reliance. Notably, care is delivered in a fast manner in the ambulatory surgical center. Patients remain in these settings for three to six hours. Hence, the focus of the nurse in this case must be on the psychological needs of the patients about the surgery. As a nurse, I should develop a good rapport with the patients to connect with them and be compassionate in providing high-quality care.

Watson’s theory of caring is used to support the experience of nurses by developing their behaviors and attitudes. In the theory, ten caring factors are outlined to promote holistic approaches to care. It is important to acknowledge that when theory is connected with practice, it is used to improve the satisfaction of the patients, improves the connection of the patients and nurses, improves the quality of care, and enhances the satisfaction of the nurses. According to Brousseau et al. (2017), it is important to provide patients with self-care education to improve their health outcomes even after they have been discharged. Compassionate attitudes should be shown to both the patients and nurses. As a nurse leader, I understand that showing compassionate and caring attitudes to the nurses is necessary for the delivery of care. This is because it makes them feel loved and they apply their potentials in the delivery of care. In my practice, I think I am a transformational leader because I utilize self-care theory to educate, motivate, and inspire nurses to deliver high- quality care to the patients. Moreover, I use the theory to build collaboration and teamwork in all areas of our organization. Transformational leadership ensures that nurses are self- motivated and self-directed.

Qualities, Skills, and Values of a Nurse

 In the current health care environment, there are various values, skills, and qualities that nurses must possess to provide quality and holistic care. The most important aspect of nurses is the ability to care. This is because caring is value, skill, and quality. Caring, as defined by Durkin et al. (2018) refers to the ability to care that drives the values, skills, and qualities of nurses. There are various values that a caring nurse should possess. These values include compassion, dignity, commitment, and courage among others. A nurse is said to be caring if he or she possesses skills like teamwork, proficiency, competence, cultural humility, effective time management, and effective communication among others. Additionally, nurses are said to be caring in they possess qualities such as mutual respect, kindness, trustworthiness, critical thinking, flexibility, and empathy among others. As a nurse, I must be able to self-reflect and identify some of my strengths and weaknesses that need to be developed to improve the quality of my practice.

NR 501 Week 2 Assignment-My Nursing Philosophy

If I have effective communication skills, I will listen keenly to the issues affecting my patients and I will provide the best solutions to these problems. As a diligent nurse, I will be determined to work even for extra hours to ensure that patients receive the best care. As nurses, we should have effective critical thinking skills and we should be confident in our work. According to Wadsworth et al. (2017), effective critical thinking skills are important because they help nurses to make effective decision skills whenever they are faced with difficult tasks. On the other hand, confidence in our job is important because it helps us work independently without needing supervision. Nurses must portray high standards of professionalism in their practice and they must adhere to the code of ethics. Moreover, as nurses, we have a common goal of improving the outcomes of the patients. Hence, we should adopt teamwork and collaboration since we are all different and we bring different sets of values, skills, and qualities to the table to deliver quality care to the patients.

My Impact on the Society as a Nurse

 It is important to understand that what we decide to do with our careers and professions determines our impact on society. Hence, to impact the society effectively, I plan to grow my profession by developing the behaviors of other nurses.

Throughout history, nursing has been referred to as a profession that eats its young. According to Wadsworth et al. (2017), in nursing practice, the issues of bullying and other forms of incivility behaviors are rampant. Nursing learning institutions have been identified as the prime areas for the development of incivility. This means that we are starting our new nursing students from an uncivil environment. After incivility is developed in learning institutions, it is reinforced and modeled by mentors in practice. This means that we are teaching our new nurses that incivility is the way to go and this cycle is likely to continue if interventions are not implemented.

In my practice, I plan to interrupt the cycle of incivility behaviors is cultivating healthy working environments for new nurses and nurses in practice. As a manager in my current practice, I am focused on addressing the issue of incivility. When uncivil behaviors are reported to me, I usually investigate the issues and I deliver corrective action to the uncivil behavior. I ensure that my department is zero-tolerant to incivility behaviors such as bullying. I also work as a mentor. I address incivility issues by modeling civil behaviors to my staff and new students. I believe that these are actions that will play a vital role in cultivating healthy working environments for new and practicing nurses. This is because they will subconsciously observe and practice positive behaviors. In my health care setting, I am teaching my nurses professional behaviors and how they need to impact the outcomes of the patients positively. After addressing the issue of incivility and related behaviors, I think my profession will have a positive impact. This is because all nurses will be motivated and they will deliver quality care to the patients will have an overall positive impact on the health of society.

Conclusion

Nursing philosophy connects out thinking, our beliefs, and our actions. Nursing philosophy is the basis of nursing theory knowledge and its application in clinical practice. Nursing is a way of expressing the skills, values, beliefs, and morals that we have learned and developed throughout our lives. In this case, nursing to me means that I should be humbled to be included in other people’s lives by influencing their lives positively especially in the health journey. Nursing is important because it not only allows nurses to practice their knowledge but we also practice other skills like our emotional competencies. Dorthea Orem’s theory of self-care and Watson’s theory of caring are the key theories that guide my nursing practice. In my practice, I plan to interrupt the cycle of incivility behaviors is cultivating healthy working environments for new nurses and nurses in practice. This will have an overall positive impact on the health of the society.

References

Andersson, E. K., Willman, A., Sjöström-Strand, A., & Borglin, G. (2015). Registered nurses’ descriptions of caring: A phenomenographic interview study. BMC Nursing, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-015-0067-9

Brousseau, S., Cara, C. M., & Blais, R. (2017). A humanistic caring quality of the work-life model in nursing administration based on Watson’s philosophy. International Journal for Human Caring, 21(1), 2-8. https://doi.org/10.20467/1091-5710-21.1.2

Durkin, M., Gurbutt, R., & Carson, J. (2018). Qualities, teaching, and measurement of compassion in nursing: A systematic review. Nurse Education Today, 63, 50-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.01.025

Wadsworth, P., Colorafi, K., & Shearer, N. (2017). Using narratives to enhance nursing practice and leadership: What makes a good nurse? Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 12(1), 28-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2016.08.001

Younas, A. (2017). A foundational analysis of Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory and evaluation of its significance for nursing practice and research. Creative Nursing, 23(1), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.23.1.13

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NR 501 Week 2 Assignment-My Nursing Philosophy

The My Nursing Philosophy Guidelines with Scoring Rubric is due by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. (MT) at the end of Week 2. The guidelines and grading rubric for this assignment are listed below.

Week 211:59 pm Philosophy Guidelines and Scoring Rubric (Links to an external site.)

Purpose

This assignment provides the opportunity for the student to develop their own personal philosophy of nursing while examining and incorporating a nursing theory.

Course Outcomes

Through this assignment, the student will demonstrate the following:

• (CO#1)Demonstrate logical and creative thinking in the analysis and application of a theory to nursing practice. (PO 2 and 5)
• (CO#3) Examine broad theoretical concepts as foundational to advanced nursing practice (PO 1 and 2)

Due Date: Sunday 11:59 pm MT at the end of Week 2 Total Points Possible: 100 points

Requirements:

This assignment focuses on the stud11:59 personal perspective of nursing and nursing theory within the profession.

This Word document should include your philosophy of nursing. If you have not developed a philosophy of nursing, then consider these questions to help you.

• What is nursing to me?
• Why is nursing vital to me?
• What nursing theory do I feel best guides my nursing practice?
• What are the qualities, skills, and values of a nurse?
• How do I intend to impact society through my nursing career personally?