Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Nursing Philosophy
By Jamie Myers
Nursing is defined as the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities,
prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the
diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families,
groups, communities, and populations. (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nursing can be
more than just a definition that if found in a book. In this paper I will be discussing my own
nursing philosophy and what I believe to be that top keys to nursing. My own nursing philosophy
includes the follow attributes: knowledge, respect, compassion for all, professionalism, and
honesty.
A nursing theorist that I would relate with would be Hildegard Peplau. I would relate to
her because her theory focuses on the interpersonal process of therapeutic between the sick and
the nurse (Vera, 2013). In order to focus on the interpersonal process of therapeutic between the
sick and the nurse, I would believe that the nurse would have to show professionalism, honesty,
compassion for all, respect, and adequate knowledge for the sick to trust them and respect them
defined as information, understanding, or skill that you get from experience or education or
Nursing changes as science changes, evidence based practices are always changing and without
the ongoing education and gain of knowledge, nursing would not be able to keep up with the
change. In other words, we have to be aware of the changes in our practices and keep up with the
ever changing world of nursing to give patients the best care and be the best advocates we can.
Continuing to grow knowledge by continuing nursing education throughout your career can
3
NURSING PHILOSOPHY
make a nurse a better advocate for patients and that is what we are here for to help and advocate
Nursing education should provide up to date evidence based practices to care for the sick
in the best way possible. By continuing education, then the nurse can be informed an updated on
new evidence based practices to better care efficiently for the sick. The learning environment
environment. This would help the learner get the information and the activity to practice the new
skill or task.
trouble, etc. (Merriam-Webster, 2015). In nursing this is a must, the want to help people who are
sick or in need of something is what nurses do. Nurse should want to help anyone and put their
prejudice aside to do so. Putting prejudice aside can be hard for everyone but when we know
what our prejudices are then we can overcome them to help others; being aware of the problem
so that you can overcome the problem. Code of ethic 1.2 states nurses must, must never, behave
prejudicially. No nurse should turn away to help a person because of a prejudice such as religion
beliefs, color, status, country, ethnic identification, living conditions, customs, attitudes,
economic status, culture, life stage, socioeconomic status, persona attributes, nature of the health
problem, age, sex, personality, background, sexual differences, value system, lifestyle, gender
expression, or primary language. (Fowler, 2015) In order to care for all patients we have to have
compassion for everyone, meaning we have to want to help those that we may have prejudice
Professionalism is important part of nursing because when we are caring for families and patients
they want someone that can demonstrate polite behavior and good judgement on their care.
Code of ethics 2.4 states the fundamental nature of the nurse-patient relationship is therapeutic,
not personal. The fundamental nature of the healthcare team relationships is professional, not
personal. (Fowler, 2015) It is always good to maintain a professional relationship with patients
so that they can trust their nurse to care for them in a professional way. The patient should not
care if something they say would make the nurse personally upset and not care for them in the
same manner as the next person. This goes back to hiding our prejudice and the only way nurses
can hide their prejudice from someone is if they know what they are themselves.
The last two attributes go hand in hand, honesty and respect. Respect is defined as a
feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be
being fair and truthful: the quality of being honest. (Merriam-Webster, 2015) These two go
together because by being honest with someone you are showing them respect or that they are
important enough for you to provide an honest answer. Respecting your patient and being honest
with them should always be a priority as this is showing them they can trust their nurse. This
how patients will respect their nurse and feel like they can talk openly and ask their nurse
questions because they will feel comfortable that the nurse will not judge them. The patient will
In conclusion, nursing is a profession that will take time to grow a person in all aspects of
their career. Knowing what your prejudices are will help give better care to those patients that
5
NURSING PHILOSOPHY
come in with those attributes and know your nursing limits; possible that another nurse would be
better to care for a patient because if your prejudice is strong enough to neglect care would be
doing wrong to the patient. This is an example how nursing will grow nurses as an individuals.
Learning what your professional nursing goals are and what you most care about takes
experience and continued growth throughout nursing career. When I first started my career, I did
not have the same philosophy that I do now. My philosophy now is to build trust by respect and
Fowler, M. D. (2015). Guie to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpertive Statements. Silver Spring,
Maryland: American Nurses Association.
Vera, M. (2013). 27 theorists and theories about nursing and health. Retrieved from Nurseslabs:
https://nurseslabs.com/nursing-nursing-related-theories-theorists-an-ultimate-guide/