Worldview and Nursing Process Personal Statement
Integral to patient-oriented healthcare operationalizations is the ability of caregivers to embrace best practices in healthcare and tailor their thought processes toward the patients. Worldview encompasses attitudes, expectations around individuals, and values that express their cultures. This paper details my worldview and how it influences my nursing practice. I will also draw a nexus between my worldview and a nursing theory and how both will help me advance my nursing practice.
Personal Worldview
My philosophy of nursing practice and attitudes toward patient care is centered on dynamicity and progressivism. My worldviews are those of optimism, thoughtfulness, and progressivism. As an optimist and a thoughtful person, I often tend to focus largely on the positives. My belief in all possibilities and the confidence I have for better and successful futures has always been a driving force for all of my decision-making processes. This has been the case whenever I am handling diverse groups of patients. My positivity has enabled me to view them as human beings who deserve dignity and respect and not as factors of their incarceration. As such, I have always learned to serve them passionately. As a progressivist, I believe it is possible to improve society for the better. The nursing profession accords a progressivist mentality to nurses. As Abbasinia et al. (2019) report, nurses are health advocates who can utilize their voices to bring about political reforms that favor the nursing operational environment. As an advocate and a patient educator, I believe I am better placed to improve human society by talking about pertinent issues affecting their health.
Being a catholic and having grown up in a religious family, I recognize the Christian faith and subscribe to its teachings. Integral to the Christian faith is caring. By embracing Christianity, I believe I owe it to myself and others to do good and care for those around me. This belief has been the cornerstone of my engagements with my patients. My Christian lessons have continuously implored me to provide the best care for my patients and serve them compassionately. I have also learned to appreciate the effect of religion and spirituality on health and well-being. Saad and de Medeiros (2020) report that religion and spirituality have an overarching impact on many aspects of healthcare, including therapeutic choices, healthcare practices, and wellness. As a religious person and a Christian, I have always learned to acknowledge religious differences and beliefs and how I can leverage them to promote my patients’ wellness.
My cultural beliefs have also played a part in informing my philosophy and patient care. Having been raised in a mixed-cultural family, I have learned to recognize and appreciate apparent cultural differences in contemporary society. This has helped me interact well with individuals from diverse cultures in my schooling and nursing practice. In the modern healthcare landscape, where cultural diversity is the norm, I continue to appreciate various cultures and have learned how to engage persons from different cultures.
Specific Nursing Theory
Nursing theories form the groundwork for effective nursing practice. Leninger’s transcultural nursing theory embodies nursing practice in a diverse healthcare landscape (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2019). It promotes cultural aptitudes by encouraging cognitively based nursing care that is tailored toward an individual’s cultural beliefs (Kaihlanen et al., 2019). This theory posits that nurses need to better understand patients’ cultural beliefs to better provide care for them (Narayan & Mallinson, 2021). Central to this theory is nurses’ recognition of cultural diversity in healthcare and demonstrating cultural competence when engaging persons from different cultures. In this respect, nurses should maintain sensitivity to the needs of people from different cultures, regardless of their approval of these needs. As Brooks et al. (2019) report, culturally sensitive care epitomizes effective communications with cross-cultural patients, recognizes the social organization that the patients present in, and understands the controlling factors within the patients’ environment that may interplay during their care processes.
The transcultural nursing theory better aligns with my philosophy and approach to patient care. Both recognize the dynamicity of the healthcare landscape and postulate the need for nurses to be better handlers of diverse patients. As evident in my worldviews, my progressivism makes me recognize and opt for changes that result in better societies. Likewise, cultural diversity in healthcare has been shown to reduce healthcare disparities and optimize patient care. Additionally, both maintain optimism for better clinical outcomes regardless of the patients’ backgrounds.
The transcultural nursing theory reinforces my approach to care. It gives me a better understanding of the role of nurses in a diverse healthcare landscape. By theorizing nurses’ expectations and a framework for nursing-sensitive care, this theory equips me with baseline knowledge on handling patients from different cultures. This aligns with my optimistic worldview, which is also geared towards optimizing clinical outcomes for all patients regardless of their backgrounds.
Specific Example of a Past Practice Problem
The cultural diversity in the modern healthcare landscape sometimes presents clinical complexities bordered on communication. Early in my practice, I got an opportunity to work in an emergency department as a volunteer. A scenario was presented when an unknown immigrant patient was brought to the ED. The patient had little belief in Western medicine and refused to take medications. As one of the attending nurses, I had considerable difficulties assessing the patient and engaging him in healthcare communications. I also found it troublesome for someone in pain as he was to refuse to take medications.
My worldview and the transcultural nursing theory can help resolve this issue. The apparent issues in the case were language barriers and contrary medical beliefs. My worldview points towards optimism, thoughtfulness, caring, and progressivism. These would help me understand the apparent differences between myself and the patients, accept them for who they are, provide the best care for them, and project hope to them. As Shah et al. (2020) note, helping patients improve their belief and faith in the care processes fosters faster healing. Transcultural nursing theory imparts to me the skills required to handle cross-cultural patients. Stubbe (2020) notes that maintaining sensitivity to cultural needs is a prerequisite for culturally competent care and will likely optimize clinical outcomes.
How My Worldview and the Nursing Theory Will Assist in Future Practice
The modern healthcare landscape is dynamic and complex, drawing diverse cultures into the care environment. As global movements ease and large-scale immigration becomes apparent, cultural diversification in healthcare is likely to increase (Juang & Schachner, 2020). In my future practice, I want to position myself to provide the best care to all patients regardless of their backgrounds. My worldview of caring, per my Christian background, implores me to provide compassionate care to all and treat everyone equally. Additionally, as a thoughtful person and an optimist, I continuously focus on the positive side of things. This way, I believe I will guide all patients toward better outcomes despite their cultural backgrounds and affiliations. With immigration, healthcare challenges such as language barriers and strained resources may be apparent (Fajth et al., 2019). As a progressivist, I intend to remain a voice for all. I believe that by voicing the concerns of these groups, their concerns and those of other caregivers will be heard. Transcultural nursing theory advocates for culturally competent nursing care. In the face of cultural diversity, this theory will help me provide the best care to diverse patients.
Conclusion
The worldviews of optimism, thoughtfulness, caring, and progressivism play a role in advancing nursing care. As evident above, they shape decision-making processes and guide patient caring in the wake of diversity. These worldviews share some similarities with the transcultural nursing theory. Both can help nurses care for diverse groups of patients and are helpful in the modern care landscape where diversity is apparent.
References
Abbasinia, M., Ahmadi, F., & Kazemnejad, A. (2019). Patient advocacy in nursing: A concept analysis. Nursing Ethics, 27(1), 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733019832950
Brooks, L. A., Manias, E., & Bloomer, M. J. (2019). Culturally sensitive communication in healthcare: A concept analysis. Collegian, 26(3), 383–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2018.09.007
Fajth, V., Bilgili, Ö., Loschmann, C., & Siegel, M. (2019). How do refugees affect social life in host communities? The case of Congolese refugees in Rwanda. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0139-1
Juang, L. P., & Schachner, M. K. (2020). Cultural diversity, migration, and Education. International Journal of Psychology, 55(5), 695–701. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12702
Kaihlanen, A.-M., Hietapakka, L., & Heponiemi, T. (2019). Increasing cultural awareness: Qualitative study of nurses’ perceptions about cultural competence training. BMC Nursing, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0363-x
McFarland, M. R., & Wehbe-Alamah, H. B. (2019). Leininger’s theory of culture care diversity and universality: An overview with a historical retrospective and a view toward the future. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 30(6), 540–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659619867134
Narayan, M. C., & Mallinson, R. K. (2021). Transcultural nurse views on culture-sensitive/patient-centered assessment and care planning: A descriptive study. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 33(2), 150–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/10436596211046986
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Question
Being able to articulate your personal worldview can help you formulate a personal philosophy of practice and enhance your influence on patients and the industry. In this assignment, you will have an opportunity to reflect on your current and future practice and the ways worldview and nursing theory influence that practice.
Draft a 1,000-1,250-word paper in which you:
Describe your personal worldview, including the religious, spiritual, and cultural elements that you think most influence your personal philosophy of practice and attitude toward patient care.
Worldview and Nursing Process Personal Statement
Choose a specific nursing theory that is most in line with your personal philosophy of practice and approach to patient care and discuss the similarities. Explain how the nursing theory reinforces your approach to care.
Include in your explanation a specific example of a past or current practice and how your worldview and the nursing theory could assist you in resolving this issue.
Finally, explain how your worldview and the nursing theory will assist you in further developing your future practice.
You are required to cite five to 10 sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the past 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.
Complete the “APA Writing Checklist” to ensure that your paper adheres to APA Style and formatting criteria and general guidelines for academic writing. Include the completed checklist as an appendix at the end of your paper.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
I’m Catholic if that helps; you can choose any nursing theory you would like.