Introduction
There are various approaches to understanding the phenomenon of nursing. While some of them tend to focus on the pure healing activities, which are often seen as complementary to those of physicians, I have a different vision. My personal nursing theory is generally focused on the art of caring, as I strongly believe that care is the main component of most of the aspects of nursing. It is not only needed on an emotional level; it is generally believed to be a vital environmental factor in the process of recovery. Thus, the main components which make up a good nurse are: being attentive to patients’ needs, staying committed, being able to communicate with different kinds of people, and constantly staying initiative and ready to act.
Main body
Another important characteristic of an ideal nurse is stress resilience and the ability to stay honest while performing nursing activities and communicating with patients. Studies prove that when asked about a nurse’s main qualities, most people tend to state that conscience is the fundamental building block of the nursing profession (Deliktas et al., 2019). Staying professional while being exposed to pressure or having strong feelings is essential in nursing.
The source for nursing inspiration itself should be analyzed when understanding its nature. It is vivid that compassion is one of the major driving forces for nursing, but it represents solely an emotional level. Domingo-Osle and Domingo (2020) point out that spirituality can be considered an autonomous and fertile source of nursing inspiration, in which not just meaning and reason but consciousness and purpose, goodwill, and unity play an important role. Being a nurse often implies working long hours with physicians, who may, at times, be arrogant, helping patients who can be unthankful or even reject the help that is being offered to them. Moreover, nurses constantly have to witness suffering people and struggle the desire to comfort them in a way that may harm. Some co-workers may choose to be cynical to handle all the pressure, and nurses have to understand the reasoning behind such attitude of other people as well. Thus, in the case of nursing, spirituality and moral values often represent the original background behind future career choice.
Researchers traditionally divide the nursing discipline in four main metaparadigms, each of which contributes to the patient’s recovery in its own unique way. The first metaparadigm focuses on a person as a whole and addresses his or her social needs, such as a human desire to communicate, connect with other people, and feel needed. The second one is centered around the environment, which is crucial for the speed of the recovery and its sustainability, as improving the surroundings can provide a great contribution to the process of healing. The third metaparadigm is focused on the well-being of the patient and the factors which can ensure that the patient stays healthy after treatment as long as possible. The fourth paradigm is dedicated to the nursing process and nursing actions in general. Some professionals believe that the metaparadigm may not appear immediately relevant to modern nursing, yet it has played an important role in its professional development (Kalogirou et al., 2020). To my mind, the metaparadigm still represents an important systematized visualization of what the core of nursing is.
Nevertheless, the world is changing fast, and the approach to the metaparadigms of nursing may also alter. For instance, some scholars believe that the modern nurse–environment relationship refers to the responsibilities nurses have towards the environment (Kalogirou et al., 2020). The evolution of such approaches may provide nurses with an even greater sense of responsibility, which is the original inspiration source for many of them. Sustainability should be promoted among nurses, as not all of them directly encounter the health problems which are caused by troubles of the modern world.
My personal nursing theory applies to all the metaparadigms of nursing, as the qualities of a good nurse described in it are essential for each of them. Care, which is vital for creating the calm and relaxing atmosphere needed for rapid recovery, can easily be considered a new metric for the assessment of the performance of a nurse. The idea is not new, as measuring happiness (the way they do it in The World Happiness Report) rather than economic performance when comparing counties is no longer considered to be strange. Feedback from patients, combined with the pace of the recovery, may provide a new formula for measuring the quality of nursing. If performed properly, this measure may help the whole national healthcare system to take a step forward. Numerous states begin to realize that providing the population with proper health services is a great investment and may become a vital competitive edge. Under such circumstances, money will no longer be the sole metric used by the ministries of healthcare worldwide when making decisions.
I suppose that my theory has numerous strengths, as teaching future nurses about the way they should handle each and every emotionally stressful situation they may encounter is highly desirable. What is more, emphasizing the importance of soft skills in the nursing activities during the educational process is essential, as it can be the key to a much needed transition. For instance, in Europe, they have achieved a lot in education by humanizing the attitude of school administration towards both teachers and students. Allowing mature and motivated teachers to act at their own discretion and the freedom to choose the subjects students are interested in led to greater performance and growing economic productivity due to enhanced creativity. The same change can be easily implemented in health care. However, my theory may have some limitations, as relying too much on the patients’ feedback may undermine the quality of treatment itself, focusing on other experiences instead.
Conclusion
Nursing has been a vital part of every health care system for centuries, as it is clear that for various reasons, physicians cannot provide all the necessary treatment and, what is more important, emotional support. Feeling needed and cared about charges patients emotionally, which leads to faster recovery. Encouraging patients shows them that other people care about their well-being just for the sake of it, as helping those in need is a professional choice for millions of people worldwide. Moreover, responsible and caring nurses create the proper relaxing atmosphere of trust and reliance that improves the image of a hospital and even a health care system of a country in general. The experience people have in hospitals may be crucial if they have health problems again. Nurses play a vital role in showing people that hospitals are much more than businesses, that spirituality and compassion still fuel the employees’ motivation. Therefore, I suppose that care and conscience are the two main characteristics of a great nurse, and the importance of these qualities should be emphasized during the learning process.
References
Deliktas, A., Korukcu, O., Aydin, R., & Kabukcuoglu, K. (2019). Nursing students’ perceptions of nursing metaparadigms: A phenomenological study. The Journal of Nursing Research, 27(5), 1-9. Web.
Domingo‐Osle, M., & Domingo, R. (2020). Nursing and spirituality: A discussion paper on intertwining metaparadigms. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(6), 1268-1274. Web.
Kalogirou, M. R., Olson, J., & Davidson, S. (2020). Nursing’s metaparadigm, climate change and planetary health. Nursing Inquiry, 27(3), e12356. Web.