Walden University – NURS 8114 Week 1 Discussion: Philosophy of Nursing Practice

Nursing is a profession which is widely trusted by the community at large. One reason nurses are trusted is because of their focus on the human who is receiving care. I view nursing as a humanity with the experience of science. Not all of nursing is a strict science and that drives my philosophy of nursing (McEwen & Wills, 2019).  My philosophy of nursing is grounded in kindness which most closely aligns to esthetics. While on the surface this seems logical and easy, it is often the most difficult way to provide care. As a nurse I have worked in many different settings and have been in many different roles. What works when caring for the child in a doctor’s office does not easily translate to the adult preparing for open heart surgery. Kindness is the common denominator to all my areas of nursing. It stretches from my care of my patients, to dealing with executives, to physicians who are opposed to change, and co-workers who are having a bad day. Kindness is the overarching tool that is often seen in nurses and appears to be the secret to success. When you approach each patient as if they are your loved one and you want the best for them, you give the best care. When you approach an executive with kindness and help them with whatever the common goal is, you will see a better outcome. When working with physicians, kindness will sometimes be viewed as weakness until they see that your kindness is rooted in the understanding that they have a difficult job and often their lack of kindness is a survival technique. Most importantly kindness is special to nursing in that our co-workers who often go overlooked need to be treated with kindness. In my current roll the morale is low due to understaffing related to our COVID status. Many people left the nursing home setting as they had great fear. Many of the staff in this setting were making more money not working and thus it became an easy choice for them. With this swift shift in staffing, kindness has been more important as those who have remained are feeling the pain. Often kindness these days is a simple thank you, helping them do a task that is generally in their job description alone, or by simply listening to their frustrations. Story after story can be told of how kindness changed an outcome in my career. Helping others and seeing their point of view is kindness to me. Today I was caring for a resident who happens to be a nurse and she asked me a pointed question, “Do you treat all of your residents as well as you treat me?” What a question, I was thankful to know she felt my philosophy of nursing and chose today to mention it.  I responded with my goal to always treat my patients and co-workers as well as I can, and she confirmed in me that I am on the right path. Nursing care is often thankless and being a patient is not easy, sharing kindness allows all involved to be happy and improves health.

One area of my philosophy I am working to exercise more is how to show myself kindness. As a nurse many of us have gone without food, water, and bathroom breaks as we strive to provide the care for others however this is contrary to my philosophy of nursing. If I want to be kind, then I must also be kind to myself. To remember and practice this, I have made kindness to myself a new area of growth. It is not kind to skip meals and then wonder why you are not able to be your best self. It is not kind to skip drinking for an entire shift and then be ill the next day. Kindness in my nursing philosophy is rooted in kindness to others and I am now learning how to maintain that and extend the circle to include me on a personal level.

While I know my philosophy needs more definition, I think kindness is needed for social change. Often change is forced on people with little change. Without kindness change is rarely successful.

NURS 8114 Week 1 Discussion: Philosophy of Nursing Practice Reference

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2019). Theoretical Basis for Nursing 5th Edition.

Where it is that I would like to excel is treating more the human side of each individual. I have noticed more and more, new practitioners simply focus on the disease and treatment. What needs to be addressed also is the motivations, desires, and obstacles that the patient will encounter. Most of us do want to live a better, healthier more meaningful life. However, when we set into the world and deal with temptations to cheat on our diets or give into different vices that worsen our conditions we are equipped with the proper tools and methods to continue our healthier lifestyle.

For example, some people might see a diet as giving up certain delicious foods and nothing more. Now if you talk to them about being able to walk their daughters down the aisle later in life rather than some stranger cause your life was cut short, that might give them the motivation to be better. They might then see their challenge as gaining something rather than giving something up. To summarize, treat the ailment and the individual with counseling and a newfound motivation is a lot better than simply giving them the lab results and a pill.

McEwen, M., & Wills, E.M. (2019). Theoretical basis for nursing (5^th ed.) Wolters Kluwer.