Abstract

This paper is about my personal philosophy. Having not established my personal philosophy I chose nursing as a career because I have always wanted to help people. It has been my dream to take care of those who can’t help themselves. I can manage to help them with care and knowledge on how to live healthy lives. I would also be able to encourage them to love and live their lives. I don’t only want to be a nurse, but I want to be a nurse who would make a difference in other people’s lives by executing my duties with my expertise and knowledge.  It also discusses my core principles as a nurse and the professional standards in regards to work ethics.

Introduction

My personal description of nursing would be passionately taking care of patients without discrimination, showing them love, respect and being true to their needs. I would put into consideration the feelings of the patient and also their families. I would ensure that I create a good environment both physically and spiritually and give them hope through the recovery process (Clement, 2011). Given the different theories surrounding nursing, I would associate myself with Madeline Leininger. She believed that nursing is a humanistic and scientific mode of helping patients through specific cultural caring processes to improve health condition. Her theory was meant to provide a universal and culture considerate nursing practices that encourage health and well being.

Cultural competence is the ability of an organization to provide health care to the patients putting into consideration the social, cultural and linguistic needs of the patient. Using this theory and I being a firm believer that nursing is a calling and it focused on human care activities which entail assisting and supporting patient so that they can regain their health in meaningful and beneficial ways. It also involves helping people face heartbreaking news such as terminal illness or even death.  I would use the transcultural nursing whereby I would study comparatively about the cultures in the interest of the patients well being. Having a thorough check on patient cultural beliefs and values would ensure that proper diagnosis is given to the patient and thus maintaining meaningful and efficient nursing care in reference to their views. Being a nurse, the main focus is to provide the best nursing care to patients.

Core Principles of Nursing

For any practicing nurse, there are the core principles that one sets to enable them to achieve their best in attending to patients. These principles act as a guideline to once beliefs when it comes to practicing this profession. They are the characteristics that that those you attend to identify you with. Some of the core principles that I perceive as a nurse include;

Good Communication

Communication is the exchange of thoughts, message or information. This is a very vital tool for any nurse. It is the main tool that we use to pass and receive data with the patients. Body language while examining a patient is equally important in planning and implementing nursing care. Every nurse should have competent oral and written communication skills.

Empathy and caring

Showing compassionate care and togetherness in nursing care is very important. As a nurse, I believe that I should be sensitive when handling a patient or their family. It’s also important to show respect and willingness to focus on the methods used in nursing care.

Professionalism

Using professionalism is the key characteristics that reflect every nurse’s status. It involves how one’s behavior is and listening ability towards the patient. How you handle a patient from diagnosis to nursing care administered greatly determines the kind of attitude the patient will have towards you. It’s therefore important to show professionalism when executing nursing duties.

Ethical and legal considerations

There are legal and set standards for nursing professionalism. I believe that every nurse should adhere to the code of ethics provided in the ideal framework of nursing.

Psychomotor skills

To facilitate nursing care, there must be assessments done to the patient. Specific skills are used to monitor the patient; it is, therefore, important to provide comfort while performing these practices.

There are several factors that affect the nursing profession. Politically, political involvement in the nursing field leads to public policy formation (Sam, 2007). The political influence can be experienced in the workplace by affecting the development of these institutions, the community through the activities on local boards or government through campaigns. In all these activities, nurses can be actively involved so that they can protect people’s culture and ensure that the community’s culture is put into consideration when initiating these government-related projects.

Other factors influencing the nursing profession are ethical issues. In relation to culture, you find that many decisions regarding the patients are not made by individuals but by a community, family or a group (Clement, 2011). There is a chance of miscommunication in such cases where nurses take care of international and culturally diverse people. These misunderstandings can cause lack of respect among those whose culture differ and may put a potential risk and harm to those people either physically or psychologically. Such situations can be resolved or improved by recognizing that values and beliefs not only differ among different communities but also within, realizing owns cultural values and biases so as to decrease ethnocentrism and analyzing bicultural differences noticed from the physical exam. It is also important to learn the body language of the patient.

Professional Practice Standards in Nursing

Professional practice can be described as the competence level of nursing care in the whole process. The main reason for its existence is to guide and maintain safety as well as ensuring that competent nursing care is practiced. They are a reflection of the desired and achievable performance levels against the actual performance of a nurse (Kramer et al., 2017). These guides are very important since they ensure that they guide and promote our clinical performance. They are a great tool for benchmarking one’s performance with the set standards. These standards can be a great tool to gauge the performance of the employees in cases where employers feel that nurses are engaging in ill malpractices or they have poor working habits which are contrary to the set guidelines by the state or the federal law.

Professional standards also promote accountability in the nursing profession since it ensures that the individual performance of a nurse is gauged and that everyone is accountable for his/ her decision. These standards are set in the interest of the patient and minimize the risk of causing any harm. The standards encourages continuous growth in terms of nursing care through experience and latest guidelines (Kramer, at al., 2017). The set professional standards must be utilized to establish our weaknesses in clinical practices and work surroundings. They also assist in ensuring that workplace safety is enhanced. We must, therefore, ensure that we exceed the expectations of the set standards and those of the community.

Conclusion

My philosophy is thereby based on the core values that I believe in which are; communication, empathy and respect, love and also professionalism. The main focus should be the welfare of the patient. Showing them love and giving them encouragement on how to carry on with their lives is very important to their well being.

References

Clement, I. (2011). Chapter-35 Cultural and Transcultural Nursing. Textbook of Nursing   Foundations,490-            497. doi:10.5005/jp/books/11319_35

General principles of emergency nursing. (2016). Oxford Medicine Online.             doi:10.1093/med/9780199688869.003.0001

Hinshaw, A. S. (n.d.). Evolving Nursing Research Traditions: Influencing Factors. Handbook of Clinical Nursing Research,18-30. doi:10.4135/9781412991452.n2

Kramer, M., Brewer, B. B., Halfer, D., Hnatiuk, C. N., Macphee, M., Duchscher, J. B., . . .             Schmalenberg, C.        (2017). Impact of Professional Nursing Practices on Patient/Nurse             Outcomes. JONA: The Journal           of Nursing Administration,47(5), 278-288.             doi:10.1097/nna.0000000000000479

Sam, M. (2007). Chapter-03 Nursing Diagnoses with Defining Characteristics and Contributing             Factors. Human Genetics in Nursing,28-49. doi:10.5005/jp/books/10365_3