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Running Head: NURSING PHILOSOPHY

Nursing Philosophy

By Jamie Myers

University of Saint Marys

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Nursing Philosophy

Nursing is defined as the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities,

prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the

diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families,

groups, communities, and populations. (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nursing can be

more than just a definition that if found in a book. In this paper I will be discussing my own

nursing philosophy and what I believe to be that top keys to nursing. My own nursing philosophy

includes the follow attributes: knowledge, respect, compassion for all, professionalism, and

honesty.

A nursing theorist that I would relate with would be Hildegard Peplau. I would relate to

her because her theory focuses on the interpersonal process of therapeutic between the sick and

the nurse (Vera, 2013). In order to focus on the interpersonal process of therapeutic between the

sick and the nurse, I would believe that the nurse would have to show professionalism, honesty,

compassion for all, respect, and adequate knowledge for the sick to trust them and respect them

to care for them.

Knowledge is important to nursing as practices changed all the time. Knowledge is

defined as information, understanding, or skill that you get from experience or education or

awareness of something: the state of being aware of something. (Merriam-Webster, 2015)

Nursing changes as science changes, evidence based practices are always changing and without

the ongoing education and gain of knowledge, nursing would not be able to keep up with the

change. In other words, we have to be aware of the changes in our practices and keep up with the

ever changing world of nursing to give patients the best care and be the best advocates we can.

Continuing to grow knowledge by continuing nursing education throughout your career can
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make a nurse a better advocate for patients and that is what we are here for to help and advocate

for our patients.

Nursing education should provide up to date evidence based practices to care for the sick

in the best way possible. By continuing education, then the nurse can be informed an updated on

new evidence based practices to better care efficiently for the sick. The learning environment

should be a combination on hands on clinical situations and in classroom controlled

environment. This would help the learner get the information and the activity to practice the new

skill or task.

Compassion is defined as a feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in

trouble, etc. (Merriam-Webster, 2015). In nursing this is a must, the want to help people who are

sick or in need of something is what nurses do. Nurse should want to help anyone and put their

prejudice aside to do so. Putting prejudice aside can be hard for everyone but when we know

what our prejudices are then we can overcome them to help others; being aware of the problem

so that you can overcome the problem. Code of ethic 1.2 states nurses must, must never, behave

prejudicially. No nurse should turn away to help a person because of a prejudice such as religion

beliefs, color, status, country, ethnic identification, living conditions, customs, attitudes,

economic status, culture, life stage, socioeconomic status, persona attributes, nature of the health

problem, age, sex, personality, background, sexual differences, value system, lifestyle, gender

expression, or primary language. (Fowler, 2015) In order to care for all patients we have to have

compassion for everyone, meaning we have to want to help those that we may have prejudice

against because they need help.

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Professionalism is defined as the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is

expected from a person who is trained to do a job well. (Merriam-Webster, 2015).

Professionalism is important part of nursing because when we are caring for families and patients

they want someone that can demonstrate polite behavior and good judgement on their care.

Code of ethics 2.4 states the fundamental nature of the nurse-patient relationship is therapeutic,

not personal. The fundamental nature of the healthcare team relationships is professional, not

personal. (Fowler, 2015) It is always good to maintain a professional relationship with patients

so that they can trust their nurse to care for them in a professional way. The patient should not

care if something they say would make the nurse personally upset and not care for them in the

same manner as the next person. This goes back to hiding our prejudice and the only way nurses

can hide their prejudice from someone is if they know what they are themselves.

The last two attributes go hand in hand, honesty and respect. Respect is defined as a

feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be

treated in an appropriate way. (Merriam-Webster, 2015) Honesty is defined as the quality of

being fair and truthful: the quality of being honest. (Merriam-Webster, 2015) These two go

together because by being honest with someone you are showing them respect or that they are

important enough for you to provide an honest answer. Respecting your patient and being honest

with them should always be a priority as this is showing them they can trust their nurse. This

how patients will respect their nurse and feel like they can talk openly and ask their nurse

questions because they will feel comfortable that the nurse will not judge them. The patient will

build trust with their nurse with these two attributes.

In conclusion, nursing is a profession that will take time to grow a person in all aspects of

their career. Knowing what your prejudices are will help give better care to those patients that
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come in with those attributes and know your nursing limits; possible that another nurse would be

better to care for a patient because if your prejudice is strong enough to neglect care would be

doing wrong to the patient. This is an example how nursing will grow nurses as an individuals.

Learning what your professional nursing goals are and what you most care about takes

experience and continued growth throughout nursing career. When I first started my career, I did

not have the same philosophy that I do now. My philosophy now is to build trust by respect and

honesty, be professional, be compassionate to all with no prejudice, and continue to gain

knowledge and grow education throughout my career.

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References
American Nurses Association. (2016). What is Nursing? Retrieved from American Nurses Association:
http://nursingworld.org/EspeciallyForYou/What-is-Nursing

Fowler, M. D. (2015). Guie to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpertive Statements. Silver Spring,
Maryland: American Nurses Association.

Merriam-Webster. (2015). Knowledge definition. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knowledge

Vera, M. (2013). 27 theorists and theories about nursing and health. Retrieved from Nurseslabs:
https://nurseslabs.com/nursing-nursing-related-theories-theorists-an-ultimate-guide/