NURSING PHILOSOPHY

The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.”

Well, that clears things up! The meaning of the word comes from the Greek words philo-meaning love and sophos-meaning wisdom.

For philosophy in nursing this can mean different things for different nurses and their roles within the profession.

Philosophy talks about behavior, composure, thinking concerning nature and the environment. This is the affirmation of credence about nursing and declaration of worth in nursing that are used bases for thought, reasoning, and response. The central core of nursing is the nurse-patient relationship. I believe in provider-patient therapeutic relationships. As a nurse, setting a calm environment for the patient to heal both physically and mentally is essential.

My philosophy of knowledge and perspective about nursing is beyond general and abstract knowledge. Nursing is beyond caring for mind, body, and emotion. It extends into passion and empathy. Empathy is the ability to feel what others are passing through or placing oneself in the situation. Empathy is a crucial element of therapeutic and supportive relationships. Nurses should care for patients with humanity and offer patients the equivalent type of care they would desire for their family members. Everyone around is essential and created for a purpose. The human body consists of mind, body, emotion, and spirit, all function together as one unit to control and stimulate the aspects of how we interact with one another in the community.

A living organism (individual) can reason to live with others in the society open with free will, quality of life, adaptation, and usually responsibility for their behavior. Human in every situation is open, have a free choose denotation each circumstance, also accountable for the outcome.

“The human is unitary, continuously co-constituting patterns of relating.” “Able to reason with others in society.” Human is designed to function better together. (Bhatti, 2017). Social exclusion results in poor meaningful life. The statement “I feel your pain” has been described as a strong emphasis on feeling the pain of others. This bridge gaps and fill an emptiness vacuum that loneliness or depression might have created.

Nursing:

The act of saving and improving lives with compassion and empathy. Act of front-line member of the health care delivery team with direct contact with the care receiver. Nursing includes caring, respect, meeting needs, helping the patient to cope. Wiedenbach’s Helping Art of Clinical Nursing, “A patient’s need for help is defined as a measure desired by the patient that can potentially restore or extend the patient’s ability to cope with situations that affect health.” Modeling and Role Modeling Theory, care for and nurture each patient with an awareness of and respect for the individual patient’s uniqueness. This exemplifies theory-based clinical practice that focuses on the patient’s needs.”

Nurses most a time have to lay aside their worries to focus on the patient, thereby creating a balance between personal and professional responsibilities. Textbook refers to this as taking care of oneself physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually is required to be productive. Hospitals, facilities, and clinics also ensure better job satisfaction for the healthcare provider to fully concentrate on healing. Healthcare workers need to lay aside any distractions outside the workplace to focus on their patients. While at work, to spend quality time and give necessary care, patient needs should be the highest priority.

Health:

Good health goes beyond the absence of disease, a state of divine healing. It is a state of being comfortable and secure physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially. Health can be well connected to basic needs in life being met. Modeling and Role Modeling Theory, “Basic needs, which drive behavior. Basic needs are only met when the patient perceives they are met.” Human capacity is in his health and well-being. Full capacity can be obtained through a good relationship. Helen, in “The Science of Empathy,” says, “Self-empathy and other empathy lead to replenishment and renewal of vital human capacity.

Environment:

A surrounding world where humans, animals, plants, living, and non-living organisms can survive.The Modeling and Role Modeling Theory, “all people have an instinctual drive to be accepted and dependent on support systems throughout life, while also maintaining a sense of independence and freedom.” I will also call it an ecological community. “Able to reason with others in society.” Human is created and design to leave in a society and interact.

Relationship:

Every human needs a caring environment where basic needs are met. Humans are obligated to create a healthy living environment. The nursing professional focuses on identifying different issues in the domain that can have an impact on the health and well-being of those in the environment. Pender’s Model Theory, “Individuals, in all their bio-psychosocial complexity, interact with the environment, progressively transforming the environment as well as being transformed over time.” Creating a positive motivation and caring passion in the immediate environment; healthy people produce a healthy environment.

Compassionate worlds can strengthen individuals, build community, and create a strong bond. With kind-heart, influence people and showing concern for others. The act of caring is powerful as it creates deeper bonds between caregivers and patients. Continuous habit creates a continuous improvement and excellence. The findings from the Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences reveal that “the development of a compassionate self and the ability to be sensitive, nonjudgmental and respectful towards oneself contributes to a compassionate approach towards others.” Healthcare must win a trust from the patient; this can be accomplished with a quality improvement care. Caring involve using a therapeutic means to help patients deal with their past and/or present trauma. Patient can become anger; it is natural to feel angry and disappointed based on what they are going through. At this point, patients’ needs emotional, physical, and medical support.

Collaboration and cooperation with patient, family, and provider are crucial to client situations. Compassionate care creates memories of an event for the patient; this is something they will not forget. Empathy is a vital tool in building trust and connection with patients by concentrating on their point of view. This allows the nurse to understand their experience and coping level. Recent research in mental health show's that empathy plays a vital role in health outcomes. As initially mentioned in this paper that nurses must “lay aside their worries” to find a balance between their personal and professional responsibilities. My vision is to offer the best possible care to all patients of all cultures and backgrounds regardless of their financial situation, family. 

Challenges, social stature, lifestyle choices, or spiritual beliefs.  Understanding the patient’s cultural background, belief, and preference can positively affect the care we deliver. The quality of care should be the same across cultures, character, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, socioeconomic. A provider should provide care that is both respectful of and responsible to individual patients. This is both challenging and opportunity as nurses require to deliver culturally competent service. They must have the ability to identify differences in demographics, beliefs, norms, practices, and desires for medical care and consider their perspectives during care delivery. This is an essential component of excellence in health care delivery and can put an end to racial and ethnic health inequality.

Hildegard Peplau is called the “mother of psychiatric nursing.” Her scope and psychiatric nursing specialty and had a strong effect on my nursing profession and practice. She is a true pioneer in developing the theory and practice of psychiatric and mental health nursing. Peplau’s idea, which involves therapeutic interventions, provides simplicity regarding the nurse-patient relationship. This leads to adaptability in any nurse-patient interaction, thus giving generalizability. We can show respect through therapeutic communication asking patients about their beliefs and preferred healthcare practice.

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