I noticed that my nursing philosophy evolved throughout the course. However, this was not due to a fundamental change in all of my ideas about how nursing should be done. Instead, I became more and more convinced of my own beliefs, and therefore, as an art and a science, my personal philosophy of nursing became more and more meaningful and profound. The concepts of kindness, honesty and constant learning became more and more important to me.
I think it was always hard for me to cooperate with the staff, although I used to believe that interprofessional collaboration and teamwork helped build my competency beyond the traditional boundaries of nursing. Thus, during the course, this idea challenged my personal values or assumptions a lot. Fortunately, I was able to convince myself that these were only minor difficulties. Therefore, I should not think that communicating with employees was less important than I had assumed.
I will not say that there were any ideas that could have led to a critical parsing of these attitudes and caused a personal conflict. My values and beliefs are quite objective and fair, and therefore even under the influence of external circumstances, I cannot give them up. For example, I cannot imagine a situation where I would feel that I could act unfairly toward patients. Or, I also could not give up the approach that the patients are the top priority in treatment. These are fundamental ideas to me, and therefore there is no way that I would realize that I was wrong and should change my thinking paradigm.
I performed the standard functions required of nurses in the course of my work. An American nurse is considered to perform such duties as participating in diagnosis and prescribing medications (Malvik, 2020). They are also required to provide patient care and treatment, counseling patients on self-care after hospitalization (Post University, 2021). This is what I had to do during this course. When I was involved in establishing the diagnosis, I was guided by the principle of individualized treatment. In practice, this means a set of methods of prevention of a pathological condition, diagnosis, and treatment in case of its occurrence, based on the patient’s individual characteristics (Netherlands Cancer Institute, 2019). I had to be polite and kind in caring for patients, which I did. I think these actions illustrate well my personal philosophy of nursing.
My own definition of the concepts associated with the nursing metaparadigm does not differ significantly from the definitions offered by scholars. Thus, I believe that the nursing component is the nurse-led interventions to improve patients’ health. I would say that health is a state of complete physical, spiritual and social well-being, not just the absence of disease and physical defects in organs and body systems. I still believe that person to be the most important since the entire care process focuses on addressing the patient’s unique needs. In addition, I remain convinced that treatment should be evidence-based, and this principle should guide nursing philosophy.
Since my principles were relatively consistent and ethical, it would be surprising if my first written nursing philosophy changed significantly. Instead, it became more deliberate and enriched by relevant work experience. If this can be called a change, then we can consider that, yes, my first written philosophy of nursing has become somewhat different. However, again, in general, I continued to adhere to the same principles that were articulated at the beginning of the work.
References
Malvik, C. (2020). What does a registered nurse do? Understanding their impact. Rasmussen University. Web.
Post University. (2021). 5 tasks nurses do every single day. Web.
Netherlands Cancer Institute. (2020). Individualized treatment. Web.