Philosophy of Nursing Paper

Nurs 401- Career Pathway Assessment

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to enable the student to discover his or her personal

philosophy of nursing, as it exists at the beginning of the academic journey toward the BSN.

Approach to Assignment

This paper involved each student to pick a nursing theorist that we are most like, or strive

to be. I chose Florence Nightingale. She taught me that anything is possible and that we, as

nurses, should go the extra mile to help our patients. She saw the patients as a whole and took

care of them as such. She did not just treat pain or wounds alone. She treated the physical,

mental, spiritual, and entire body. This paper helped me to realize my strengths and weaknesses

as a nurse and encouraged me to continue growing. Being a nurse is not a career that you should

become stagnant in; it is a calling that is ever-changing the nurse, making them better each day.

Reason for Inclusion

I chose this paper to include in my portfolio because I believe it to be inspirational. It

reminds me of why I fell in love with nursing and helping others. We often get tired and worn

down by issues with staffing, patients or families that are considered more needy, no meal

breaks, and just being tired. Nursing involves our whole body- mental, spiritual, emotional,

physical, etc. This paper reminds me of the great Florence Nightingale and the big differences

she made for the nursing cause and in the lives of those she helped.

Critical Thinking

Uses nursing and other appropriate theories and models to guide professional practice.
Through studying each nursing theorist throughout this course, I chose Florence Nightingale to

write my paper on and use as my role model in nursing. Florence went from a life of grandeur to

cleaning up areas where patients were laying in their own stool and rats were running around.

She led a life of humility, grace, and hard work. I also learned about Jean Watsons ten carative

factors: formation of a humanistic altruistic system of values, instillation of faith-hope,

cultivation of sensitivity to self and others, development of a helping-trust relationship,

promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings, systematic use of

the scientific problem-solving method of decision making, promotion of interpersonal teaching-

learning, provision for a supportive, protective and corrective mental, physical, sociocultural, and

spiritual environment, assistance with gratification of human needs, and the allowance for

existential-phenomenological forces. Studying these theorists renewed the goal for my nursing

career- to treat the patient as a whole, not just the physical.

Nursing Practice

Implements traditional nursing care practices as appropriate to provide holistic health

care to diverse populations across the lifespan.

I try to implement the care and skills Florence Nightingale and other theorists showed throughout

their lives. Florence Nightingale did not care about cultures or financial backgrounds of the

patient, but the whole patient- physical, spiritual, emotional, etc. The instance where she turned

her back on her well-to-do life to help those patients living in their filth and rats everywhere to

clean the place up and decrease the mortality rate for those patients, opened my eyes to the kind

of nurse I want to be. She was a true example of a nurse who was humble, compassionate, hard

working, and dedicated.

Communication

Uses therapeutic communication within the nurse-patient relationship.

Because of Florence Nightingales example, I try to care for my patients and their families with

compassion and kindness. Attention is given to their psychiatric health, spiritual health, and

emotional health as well as their physical health and, through that, therapeutic communication is

utilized.

Teaching

Provides relevant and sensitive health education information and counseling to

patients, and families, in a variety of situations and settings.

By applying each characteristic from the nursing theorists, like Jean Watson and Florence

Nightingale, I can better communicate with my patients using compassion, dedication, and

advocacy. Jean Watson believed in interpersonal teaching-learning. With teaching patients and

their families also comes learning from them and using that experience to help someone else in

the future.

Research

Applies research-based knowledge from the arts, humanities and sciences to

complement nursing practice.

The theorists that I studied did not have endless data from books and the internet to base their

practices on. Florence Nightingale is considered to be the Pioneer of Nursing. She worked hard

to promote nursing and get more involved in the career. She based her practice on getting her

hands dirty and working hard. Because of that, we have many skills and traits that are developed

from her hard work.

Leadership

Organizes, manages, and evaluates the development of strategies to promote healthy

communities.

Nightingale led by example and made some huge accomplishments in nursing. By applying the

traits she possessed into my own practice, as well as ones based on research, I can help promote

health communities. Traits I strive to possess from her are hard work, dedication, compassion,

and humility.

Professionalism

Applies an ethical decision-making framework and legal guidelines to clinical

situations that incorporate moral concepts, professional ethics, and advocacy for

patient well-being and preferences.

Nightingale saw each patient as being valuable and worth fighting for. In my paper, I discussed

my desire to possess traits such as professionalism, punctuality and morality. I believe most of

the theorists I learned about possessed the need to advocate for the patients well-being and

preferences. Each theorist made certain points a priority, but they all had professionalism within

their lists. Nurses must be moral and advocate for their patients or they are in the wrong

profession.

Culture

Maintains an awareness of global environment factors that may influence the delivery

of health care services.

Nightingale may or may not have had the exposure to different cultures like I do, but I do know

that she worked in all kinds of environmental situations that I have not, including the cleanliness
of hospitals and communities. Some conditions were so bad there were rats all around. She still

treated each patient the same and worked just as hard for them as those who were wealthy. She

promoted independence for each patient, as I try to do myself.