Key concepts of the philosophy
Some of the key meaningful elements of daily nursing philosophy that I would like to incorporate in practice are an empathic connection between nurse and patient, the relationships of care, relationships of trust, monitoring as with care, and cultural specifics of nursing care.
An empathic connection between nurse and patient is a basis of nursing practice because it is essentially important for a nurse to be able to understand not only a patient’s physical challenges but also emotional and spiritual needs. Empathy makes relationships between a nurse and a patient equal rather than hierarchical.
At the same time, it is also important to point out two elements of the relationships between a nurse and a patient; they are relationships of care and relationships of trust. Whereas care, in many ways, refers to attending to the physical needs of a patient that were caused by a medical condition, the component of relationships of trust relates to a patient’s spiritual and emotional life. Trusting relationships ensure that a patient is feeling comfortable at the hospital and is not suppressed by any of the circumstances in terms of risks of emotional discomfort.
The concept of cultural specifics of nursing care also relates to ensuring spiritual comfort for all patients by taking their cultural background into consideration when providing medical and nursing care.
Four meta paradigms of nursing
The conceptual basis for my personal nursing philosophy was designed on the basis of Patricia Benner’s theory of caring and clinical wisdom, Madeleine Leininger’s transcultural nursing theory, Martha Rogers’ unitary human being theory, Jean Watson’s theory of human caring. Those models and theories created the basis for my personal interpretation of what current clinical practice should be alike. Firstly, Patria Benner’s approach to nursing ethics and caring formed the concept of an empathic connection between nurse and patient (Alligood, 2013).
Second of all, Martha Rogers’ unitary human being theory underlines the importance of a spiritual component of care (Alligood, 2013), whereas Jean Watson’s theory of human caring relies on the trust element in the relations between a patient and a nurse (Watson & Woodward, 2010). Thus, Madeleine Leininger’s transcultural nursing theory that refers to cultural specifics (Leininger, 2002), became a basis for the concept of cultural specifics of nursing care.
Application in present nursing practice, research, administration
In the modern environment of nursing practice, it is important to consider different perspectives and experiences. For that reason, a personalized nursing philosophy would help not only to apply the ideas and methodologies invented by other people but also to attend to specific circumstances, in which it is practiced.
In nursing practice, such philosophy helps to adjust nursing care to the cultural backgrounds of different patients in order to ensure that they feel comfortable. Also, understanding that empathy has a key role makes a nurse work harder in terms of looking for individual approaches, which is why various needs are administered better. The research and education benefit from such philosophy because it relies on concepts from different theoretical paradigms.
Philosophy’s strengths and limitations
One of the strengths is that such philosophy does not limit nursing practice to a strict theoretical model and encourages nurses to use observations, experiences, and instincts for a better understanding of a patient’s needs. The advantage is also in incorporating the element of cultural consideration into nursing practice. The main challenge is how to manage a nurse’s time, in particular, and the working process overall in order to attend to the needs of all the patients.
References
Alligood, M. R. (2013). Nursing Theorists and Their Work. New York, New York: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Leininger, M. (2002). Culture Care Theory: A Major Contribution to Advance Transcultural Nursing Knowledge and Practices. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 189-192.
Watson, J., & Woodward, T. K. (2010). Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring. Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice, 3(1), 351-369.