The paradigm of nursing experience, although impossible to encompass at its fullest, has been currently explicitly described in a variety of textbooks and scholarly articles. Thus, prior to making a meaningful choice to dedicate oneself to the career of a nurse, it is of paramount importance to secure a careful reconsideration of the expectations and major values related to this profession. When reflecting on personal experience, it would be frank to state that the expectations associated with the profession of nurse have become modified to an unprecedented extent during the fundamental nursing course taken over this year.
The first and arguably the most significant insight obtained in the course of learning was the fact that previously, I perceived nursing as an occupation rather than a meaningful career. Thus, according to Finkelman & Kenner (2019), the primary difference between these two concepts is that occupation does not require more than has been predetermined by the joy description. A career, on the other hand, includes such prerequisites as lifelong learning, commitment, and a larger scope of responsibility a nurse accepts voluntarily.
Another lesson obtained in terms of learning was the notion of communication and its value in the context of nursing experience. Undeniably, prior to completing the course, I knew that quality interpersonal communication with patients and staff was key in order to secure quality service patient outcomes. However, my expectations were rather limited by the idea that nurses were more mediators than decisive factors in terms of treatment. For example, when adopting any existing leadership framework, it is impossible to omit the nurses’ participation in the process of creating and delegating tasks across the team of professionals (Northouse, 2019). As a result, I have understood that the role of the nurse should be by no means undermined in the context of the decision-making process in the workplace.
Finally, the course helped me identify and enhance a personal definition and values of a nursing philosophy as a central concept of one’s dedication to the profession. Previously, I perceived nursing philosophy as a set of moral values that guide nurses within the decision-making process. Although such a definition is not inherently wrong, there is more meaningful attribution to the phenomenon than moral and ethical consideration.
Throughout the course, it has been established that the frameworks of nursing behavior depend significantly on the various historically predetermined philosophical branches. For example, such trends as positivism or postmodernism influence the nurses’ consideration in terms of choosing relevant practices for the patients (McEwen & Wills, 2019). Moreover, it is crucial to remember that nursing philosophy may not be definite by nature, as nurses are expected to find the best solutions while accounting for both social and practical paradigms (McEwen & Wills, 2019). Thus, nursing philosophy should not be about finding the most appropriate approach to the practice but the ability to combine the specifics of various tendencies in order to create a personalized and functional intervention framework.
Having taken the notion of nursing philosophy into consideration, it may be concluded that the present course on nursing helped me define the scope of the complexity of nursing. However, instead of being terrified by the amount of knowledge and responsibility, I realized that such requirements make sense when nursing itself is regarded through the prism of vocation and not an occupation. As far as the definition of nursing philosophy is concerned, it would be reasonable to conclude that while being quite personal, such a definition should always describe the combination of one’s values and visions of a nurse that positively impacts patient outcomes and meaningful interaction within the team.
References
Finkelman, A., & Kenner, C. (2019). Professional nursing concepts: Competencies for quality leadership (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2019). Theoretical basis for nursing (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.