!1 Nursing Philosophy Nursing Philosophy Tracey A. Wilson Delaware Technical and Community College !2 Nursing Philosophy Abstract All of us have values and beliefs. Things that we feel strongly about and carry with us through life. Many of these beliefs we learned as a child and others we have learned through life experiences and career choices. In this paper, I will explain how I came to be in the vast field of nursing and what I feel is my personal nursing philosophy, how I feel a nurse should act. This will be supported by online sources, material from class and personal opinion. I believe a nurse needs to show compassion, caring and respect to all individuals. Keep your mind open to new ideas and concepts, continue learning as there are many roles to perform and always strive to do your very best. Nursing Philosophy !3 What do you want to be when you grow up? This is a question we hear quite a bit. It starts out when we’re little and continues up into high school. Some people know right away what they want to do, but for others it takes some time. We make go down one road and decide it’s not the right one or we may discover our interests have changed. I am one of those individuals whose interests had changed. I always wanted to be a teacher. As a child, I would play teacher with my dolls as the students using my papers from school and my favorite books. I also loved music and playing the flute. What could be better than being a music teacher? This was my first career path. As the commercial on TV says, “Life comes at you fast”. In order to care for my children, I went to school again and became a medical transcriptionist. It was then that I discovered medicine. I was fascinated by the terminology and the procedures dictated by the surgeons. How could I start doing some of the things these doctors were talking about? Nursing, I have discovered, is a large field in the healthcare realm. It is not just some woman wearing a white uniform and cap giving out medicine like you see on television as a child. There are many specialties within nursing and so much to learn. Through my rotations at Christiana Care during my nursing classes, I discovered my place. I wanted to work in the Operating Room and I have been a Peri-Operative nurse now for almost 9 years. So what is my nursing philosophy? What do I hold near and dear and where do I want to go in life? My philosophy of nursing is to always show compassion, caring and respect. Always search for knowledge then teach others what you have learned and know. A nurse needs to show compassion and caring in good times and bad. Not every patient will be nice and easy. There will come a time when you may deal with someone who is angry and scared. Know that they are not mad at you, but at what is happening to them through no fault of their own. Their body has Nursing Philosophy !4 betrayed them and is no longer working the way it should. There is fear of the unknown and a hospital can be a scary place. By listening to their concerns, explaining tests and procedures in language they can understand, showing respect and kindness, patients will begin to trust us and communicate what is really bothering them. Annette Budzban explained it quite nicely in an article titled Compassion and Respect in Nursing Care: “Respect is not an emotion. It is an action we perform. It is something we do to show others we value them. Showing respect is one way we can show compassion in our nursing care” (Budzhan, 2012). Demonstrate kindness and fairness. It can be disturbing when doctors tell us about a patient they are treating and then add the fact that this person is someone important. They should receive special care. It is my belief and my practice that all patients are to be treated equally. No one is better than the other. As nurses we follow a code of ethics, one of these ethical principles is that of justice. Justice is the ethical principle that relates to fair, equitable, and appropriate treatment in light of what is due or owed to persons (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p. 81). Provision 8 in the ANA Nursing Code of Ethics states: The nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public to protect human rights, promote health diplomacy, and reduce health disparities. (ANA, 2015) In promoting health diplomacy and reducing health disparities, we are showing justice by giving care or treatment equally, appropriately and as fairly as possible to avoid issues or problems. As a nurse and former teacher, I know that there is always something new to learn. We live in a very fast paced society. New advances are being made in medicine, techniques and Nursing Philosophy !5 procedures are changing. It is our responsibility both to ourselves and to our patients to be informed. Nursing involves life-long learning as we must keep current on advances, expand our knowledge base and learn things about ourselves and those we care for. Hildegard Peplau in her Theory of Interpersonal Relations states that a nurse has a variety of roles. The seven nursing roles are: the stranger role, the resource role, the counseling role, the surrogate role, the active leadership role, and the technical expert role (Petiprin, 2016). In order to perform all these roles, we must be educated and knowledgable and then share what we have learned in order to help our patients. This can be accomplished through continuing education credits for licensure, college courses to further our degrees and clinical experiences with our patients. In conclusion, as a Peri-Operative nurse, I work in many different settings. Sometimes I may have the opportunity to talk with the patient as the procedures are done under local anesthesia. It is during those times that I am able to be the teacher, the resource and the counselor helping the patient understand what is happening and why, teaching them how to dress the incision site and answer any questions they may have about their care. I listen to what they have to say, talk with families and try to ease their anxiety, always showing them dignity and respect, compassion and caring. Other times, I am more of a silent player as the procedures are done under general anesthesia. My roles are now that of surrogate for the patient, making sure things run smoothly and per the consent, as they cannot speak for themselves; and then technical expert, running all the equipment in the room and making sure the surgeon and his team have what is needed. I attend inservice meetings concerning new equipment, learn how to troubleshoot problems and anticipate the needs of those in the Operating Room. To some it may seem as if I am just standing there watching an operation, but really it is much more. !6 Nursing Philosophy References American Nurses Association (2015), Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, Washington D.C.: American Nurses Publishing Budzban, A., (2012, October 11). Compassion and Respect in Nursing Care Retrieved from http://www.nursetogether.com/compassion-and-respect-nursing-care Burkhardt, M.A., & Nathaniel, A.K. (2014). Ethics & Issues in Contemporary Nursing (4th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning Petiprin, A., (2016). Hildegard Peplau - Nursing Theorist Retrieved from http://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Hildegard-Peplau.php
