Running Head: PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

Philosophy of Nursing
Victoria Grigorita
Old Dominion University

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

2
Philosophy of Nursing

As my journey in nursing school comes to an end, I would like to take a few moments to
reflect on my path of growth as a nursing student. A little over two years ago, I started nursing
school completely fresh; I didnt have previous experience or ideas of what kind of nurse I
wanted to become. However, I had something I value a lot today: open-mind, desire to learn, and
strong willingness to become somebody who can serve others in a meaningful way.
In my sophomore year, I completed an assignment that required me to describe my
philosophy of nursing. I chose to express my thoughts by making an unfinished scrapbook. This
way, I wanted to demonstrate that, although, I had my personal values and believes of what
nursing was; I had a passionate wish to explore and learn more about it. Back then, I thought that
by the end of the nursing school I will have a finished product. However, now I realize that
nursing is so wide-ranging and comprehensive that my scrapbook is most likely to be added
upon throughout my life-long nursing journey.
Definition
The definition of nursing that guides my vision comes from International Council of
Nurses (2014). According to the definition:
Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages,
families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the
promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people.
I chose this definition because it is very broad in terms of what kind of patients nurses
take care of and in what kind of settings. I strongly believe that nursing is not only caring for ill
patients in the hospital settings anymore. Today, in addition to health restoration, nurses hold a
very important responsibility of illness prevention. My short-term goal is to become a nurse in

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

critical care setting upon graduation. In spite the fact that patients in intensive care units are in
critical condition, I believe that health promotion can take place even there.
In addition, this definition describes nursing as autonomous as well as collaborative
profession. I strongly believe that nurses are trained well enough to be able to make independent
decisions when applicable. However, we are also trained to work in a multidisciplinary team,
where each profession invests its knowledge in order to benefit patient interests.
Lastly, according to the rest of the definition, Advocacy, promotion of a safe
environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems
management, and education are also key nursing roles (International Council of Nurses, 2014).
This statement completes my vision of nursing. I strongly believe in continuation of education,
importance of research, and practice based on evidence. I think that questioning attitude aids in
gaining new knowledge and even helps improving of what is already known. Nurses spend more
time with patients than any other health care professional. Therefore, they shouldnt hesitate to
voice their opinions, stand for their patients interests, and participate in policy making.
Purpose
My personal philosophy of nursing during sophomore year was based on Jean Watsons
Theory of Human Caring. I find it fascinating that Jean Watson remains my favorite nursing
theorist today. She describes nursing as a process of caring (Sitzman & Watson, 2013). Nurses
come in contact with many different people during various moments of their lives: moments of
happiness, such as having a firstborn child, or moments of sadness, such as having a terminal
illness. Despite the circumstances, nurses ought to share these unique life events with their
patients. It can be done by administering medications, charting most recent vital signs, paging a

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

doctor, expending patients knowledge, or holding patients hand. Regardless of the way, nurses
should always be there for their patients to support and empower them.
Nursing can be very challenging physically and/or emotionally: heavy workloads, long
shifts, devastated families, broken spirits, tough decisions, etc. The source of my strength to
embrace these challenges is my faith. Believing in Jesus Christ helps me keep in mind my pure
intensions. I am called to pass on to other people the gifts that my Savior sends upon me, Each
of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of Gods
grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10 New International Version). My religion teaches me to
treat others with compassion and love even in the situations where it seems impossible, A new
command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (1
John 13:34 New International Version). People react differently in stressful situations; however,
nurses should always strive to serve patients in their best interests.
Assumptions
In the following section I will discuss assumptions that I hold about relationships
between nurses and patients, nurses and community, and nurses and other healthcare
professionals. These three kinds of relationships are different in their nature. However, there is
something that makes them similar. In particular, the idea of communication and collaboration
that is at the base of these relationships.
The Nurse and the Client in Culturally Diverse Settings
I believe that the nurse and the client should have a partnership kind of relations. These
relationships should not exist based on personal pleasure, but should be goal-directed with the
purpose of serving patients best interests throughout the process of illness prevention and/or
health restoration. Hildegard E. Peplau in her theory of Interpersonal Relations in Nursing says,

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

The role of the patient should change from being the object of the nurses action to being a
partner with the nurse (Johnson & Webber, 2010, p. 125). This supports the idea of patientcentered care and the principle of autonomy. Instead of being told what to do, in my opinion,
patients should have a right to receive honest and complete data to be able to make an informeddecision.
Moreover, I believe that every patient is unique and should be treated accordingly. The
world we live in today is very diverse. Nurses and patients come from various backgrounds with
different points of view about healthcare. This should not be an obstacle for providing care that
patient wishes to receive. Nurses should strive to understand their patients and provide culturally
competent and culturally sensitive care to them.
The Nurse in the Community
There are various ways nurses can serve society today. Besides taking care of patients in
acute care settings, the nursing role is expanding to the community settings. I think this shift is
bringing about very important changes to the meaning of health care and nursing. Today nurses
have a very unique opportunity to educate their patients to prevent illness and promote health.
Betty Neuman in her Systems Model stressed the role of environmental changes on patient
wellbeing (Johnson & Webber, 2010). Even more than 40 years ago, she taught the nurses about
the importance of primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention. Thankfully, today this
idea is well accepted and steps are taken to implement it in the community settings in order to
promote wellness and stability.
The Nurse and Other Healthcare Professionals
The importance of teamwork is stressed in almost every place where nurses practice
today. Collaborative approach is meant to benefit patients best interests. While we still have a

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

long way to improve communication between members of healthcare team, the idea of it is well
established. In my opinion, no profession is more important than the other. In contrary, every
member of healthcare team has something valuable to add in order to benefit patients. Dorothy
E. Johnson in her Behavioral System Model for Nursing says, Nursing focuses on the
behavioral system; medicine on the biological system (Johnson & Webber, 2010, p. 137). While
I believe that nursing is more holistic than just a behavioral system, her idea of an individual to
have more than one dimension teaches us to treat every patient from various perspectives.
Therefore, the principle of collaboration between healthcare professionals becomes of
tremendous importance as it coaches us to treat patients in the most holistic way possible. This
cannot be done without involvement of a multidisciplinary team.
Principles
As mentioned earlier, Jean Watsons Theory of Human Caring guides my moral and
ethical believes and values. In her theory she describes ten caritas, which are the core principles
of nursing practice. One of my favorite caritas is developing helping trusting caring
relationships (Sitzman & Watson, 2013). I find it very important to strive to create caring
relationships with every patient. For my nursing philosophy project during sophomore year I
chose to demonstrate healthcare environment as a blank sheet of paper. This paper may seem to
be empty; however, it is meant to be pure. Many challenges that nurses confront every day at
work make it easy to stereotype patients. As a result, certain expectations arise. However, I
believe that nurses should be free of judgmental attitude and stereotyping but they should strive
to treat each patient as unique individual. During one of my clinical rotations I saw for myself
how easy it is to break this principle. During the report, the night nurse described one of the
patients as an angry man who is hard to deal with. Unfortunately, without even seeing this

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

patient, I already had negative expectations. As I came to patients room, the patient started
yelling at me. However, instead of becoming frustrated with the patient and with the help of God,
I sat down and listened to his concerns. As it appeared to be, he made multiple simple requests
and was completely ignored by the night staff. Without making negative comments about my
colleges and with a trusting attitude, I helped the patient. As a result, patient was calm and
cooperative during the rest of the shift. This situation taught me a very valuable lesson on the
importance to care for my patients with a helping attitude despite what others may tell me.
Among the rest of caritas, I especially value the one that teaches to be sensitive to self
and others by nurturing individual beliefs and practices (Sitzman & Watson, 2013). For my
philosophy project I demonstrated nursing as a hand that supports patients. I believe that one of
the main nursing responsibilities is advocating for patients and teaching them so they can make
informed decisions. Although, as a future healthcare specialist I may be prone to certain
decisions based on scientific rationale; the final decision is for each patient to make. During my
clinical rotation, I came to a contact with the patient who urgently needed blood transfusion.
However, this kind of procedure was against of his religious believes. Even though it was very
hard for me to realize that something that could be done to help the patient at that moment is not
being done; I learned to accept the fact that my patients interests are above mine. As a result, I
was able to continue my care in a culturally sensitive way and with respectful attitude.
Conclusion
Reflecting back is a thought-provoking way to see the path of growth. Interestingly, I
cant say that my current views of nursing are completely different from what I began with. On
the contrary, the basis of it remained the same. The theory of Jean Watson guided me throughout

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

my journey in nursing school. Instead of making me a changed person, it helped me to expand

my knowledge and build something more wide-ranged and meaningful.
I started nursing school without any experience in the field and I can tell now that it was
fascinating to explore different kinds of nursing with an open mind. After trying different
directions, I fell in love with critical care. In my opinion, this kind of environment allows me to
put the pieces of the puzzle together and see a complete picture. With this being said, working in
critical care is my goal for the nearest future. What happens from thereI am yet to explore!

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

9
References

Johnson, M., & Webber, P. B. (2010). An introduction to theory and reasoning in nursing (3rd
ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
International Council of Nurses. Definition of Nursing. Retrieved from http://www.icn.ch/abouticn/icn-definition-of-nursing/
Sitzman, K., & Watson, J. (2013). Caring science, mindful practice: Implementing Watson's
human caring theory. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.