Defining Nursing
Nursing is the practice of caring for the infirm, sick, and anyone who required care. Nursing exists to provide general care to the patient during their recovery. I chose to practice nursing after being inspired by the works of Virginia Henderson and her “Needs Theory.” The concepts she presented were very simple, and yet very sensible. I found her writing to be very pleasant and reassuring. I have been interested in helping people since I was in high school, and after seeing her theory, I thought that nursing would be the best way I can help people (Alligood, 2014).
Assumptions and Beliefs
I believe that nurses should be able to provide care to patients up until the patients can care for themselves. This is the primary duty of the nurse. By focusing on making the patient independent, they would be able to avoid future injury, illness, or any other reasons to return to the medical facilities. Anybody could be a patient if their present condition prevents them from living their life to their full ability. These conditions could be both physical and psychological. Other healthcare providers such as surgeons, pharmacists, physicians, can are responsible for other stages of the patient’s recovery. For example, a pharmacist is responsible for providing medicine prescribed to the patient by their physician.
People are social creatures, so they are likely to live in communities. Each community is unique and has its needs. To facilitate the health of the community, it is often important to analyze those needs to provide a focused effort to meet them.
Major Domains
Major domains of nursing include three branches: person, health, and the environment. The domain of people includes both medical practitioners and patients. It is essential to preserve the human rights of people while practicing nursing. With every person being unique, it is important to have a personal touch for every patient. For example, some people are terrified of needles, so it would be favorable to prepare them for the procedure. Health is a concept often defined as a state of being when no ailment is preventing the person from living a productive and fulfilling life. For example, a high fever can affect a person’s ability to think. Therefore to be healthy, their fever needs to be treated. Florence Nightingale saw the environment as being one of the primary causes of disease (Bostridge, 2015). By expanding her definition, I believe that environment is a combination of the physical, social, and psychological space that the person is situated in. For example, if the person’s house is near a hazardous area, they are more likely to get sick. If their city block is not safe, they are likely to be a victim of crime. Finally, if their daily life is full of stress, they are likely to develop a psychological disorder.
Summary
These domains are interconnected. Environment affects the health of people, but at the same time, people affect the environment. It is hard to predict the future of nursing, but I believe that these domains will stay the same unless a startling innovation disrupts our view of the world. I can imagine a new visionary nurse like Virginia Henderson, finding a simple truth in the practice of nursing that would help teach the upcoming generations of nurses, as well as find something new about the nature of people. I fear that in my career I might become a victim of compassion fatigue. The practice of nursing involves dealing with a lot of people in a very hard situation. Empathy is an important factor in such cases, but sometimes it leads to compassion fatigue (Hegney et al., 2013). I want to provide a caring service to people, so this phenomenon terrifies me more than any other challenge. In the future, I hope to continue improving my abilities, and perhaps become a part of a UN nursing effort.
References
Alligood, M. (2014). Nursing theorists and their work. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Bostridge, M. (2015). Florence Nightingale: The woman and her legend. London, UK: Penguin UK.
Hegney, D., Craigie, M., Hemsworth, D., Osseiran-Moisson, R., Aoun, S., Francis, K., & Drury, V. (2013). Compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, anxiety, depression, and stress in registered nurses in Australia. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(4), 506-518.