Nursing can be defined as an act of providing and maintaining people’s health and capabilities, preventing illnesses, performing the treatment, educating patients about proper self-care, and increasing the level of health care quality in general (by contributing to the well-being of each person in particular). It is a constantly changing practice exercised by a highly qualified person who is able to improve the state of health of his/her patients. Nursing requires observation, research, assessment, analysis, diagnosis, treatment, and many other aspects (Paley, 2006).
Identifying your personal nursing philosophy means establishing links between opportunities that the profession can offer and your own values, competences, and expectations (Paley, 2006).
My nursing philosophy is based on the following assumptions and beliefs:
- the care that I provide must be patient-oriented, which means that all the peculiarities of the person must be taken into consideration;
- it is my duty to encourage patients to take an active part in their own care, to learn everything about their present condition and the ways they can deal with it successfully;
- I must be able to explain to my patients their part of the responsibility for their actions and make them acquainted with preventive measures;
- I must provide enough information for patients to be able to acquire healthy habits that foster their gradual transition to a healthy lifestyle;
- I must continue learning throughout my whole nursing activity, not only from books and medical journals but also from other nurses’ experience as well as my own;
- my work should not run isolated as it is essential to provide support to fellow-nurses and other team members;
- the end of my shift never means the end of my work as nursing implies readiness to help people in need no matter where and when you encounter them.
Taking into account all the assumptions provided, I can give the following definitions of the four domains of the nursing metaparadigm (Bahramnezhad, Shiri, Asgari, & Afshar, 2015):
- A person is a human being that possesses his/her specific background and should be examined comprehensively in dynamics. A patient is analyzed as a sum of constantly changing physiological, psychological, intellectual, and social characteristics (e.g. gender, age, habits, attitude to treatment, etc.).
- Environment can be defined as a context or settings of human experience that can vary in space, time, and nature (e.g. cultural norms and values, financial and social status of the patient, his/her political views, etc.).
- Health is a dynamic state comprised of wellness and diseases in their different proportions. Absolute health is unachievable and is always context-dependent and multifaceted (e.g. physical condition, mental stability, moral realms, self-perception, etc.)
- Nursing is the art of providing comprehensive full-fledged care for those who cannot do it themselves (e.g. critical assessment, medical treatment, education of patients).
The domains are interconnected: health is hard to restore without the interference of medicine, while nursing, in its turn, cannot be performed without people who need medical care. Environment plays a crucial role in forming the patient’s mentality including his/her attitude to treatment that is highly important for culturally competent nursing. I believe that the nursing of the future will be freed from stereotypes and will be culture-specific in both treatment and communication with patients and their families. Moreover, the integration of advanced technologies will not violate ethical norms and values. As a nurse, I will encounter a lot of challenges, which include operation with technologies, ongoing education, acquiring intercultural communicative skills, learning foreign languages, etc.
My primary objective has always been to render medical aid to all people who need it, no matter what cultural background they belong to, what religion they have or what their financial and social status is. However, as far as professional development is concerned, I strive to obtain enough knowledge to become a nurse educator that would allow me to give proper direction to young specialists and help them bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practice.
References
Bahramnezhad, F., Shiri, M., Asgari, P., & Afshar, P. F. (2015). A review of the nursing paradigm. Open Journal of Nursing, 5(01), 17-22.
Lane, M. R. (2006). Arts in health care a new paradigm for holistic nursing practice. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 24(1), 70-75.
Paley, J. (2006). Nursing philosophy. Nursing Philosophy, 7(3), 186-187.