Running head: PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING 1

Personal Philosophy of Nursing

Kimberly Nguyen

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

NUR 4142: Synthesis for Nursing Practice

March 12, 2018

“I Pledge”
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Personal Philosophy of Nursing

For as long as I can remember, I have always had the desire to help and care for those in

need. I have always dreamed of working in a hospital or a clinical setting, and I believe this

ultimately lead me to nursing. After graduating from Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing,

I know my life and time in the hospital will be completely different. I will no long be a nursing

student who is following behind a nurse and had to be monitored all day, but instead I will be the

primary nurse caring for my patients. Before starting nursing school, I went through the

transition of being a regular college student to being a nursing student, and that made me feel

uneasy. I will soon go through the transition from being a nursing student to new graduate nurse,

and it is important that I identify my personal philosophy of nursing to remind me the type of

nurse I long to become. The purpose of this paper is for me to develop a framework to describe

my philosophy of nursing.

Defining the Nursing Profession

The nursing profession has gone a long way since Florence Nightingale’s time. Nursing

used to be though of as a profession that did not require any special skills or knowledge. It was

just a profession that had activities similar to a servant, such as feeding and cleaning the ill. As I

spent time in the hospital setting, I quickly learned there was so much more to nursing than just

administering medications and helping patients to the bathroom. Nurses work closely and

collaborate with the interdisciplinary team, which consists of physicians, care management, and

pharmacists, and etc., to create a diverse plan of care that is unique to the patient. According to

Schub and Karakashian (2018), “an essential feature of professional nursing is the application of

scientific knowledge to the processes of diagnosis and treatment through the use of judgment and

critical thinking.” Nurses are required to recognize changes in health status and create a plan of
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care that is unique and specific for each patient. Nursing uses science to help determine a plan of

care for each individual patient. How that plan gets carried out is the art. Caring and compassion

helps nurses connect with the patients and establish a mutual and trusting relationship.

Philosophy in Practice

My philosophy of nursing includes combining the knowledge of medicine while

providing compassionate and holistic care to each and every patient. When providing patient

care, I always try to form a trusting relationship with my patients. I want my patients to know

and trust I am doing my best to take care of them. Since nursing school, I have had the

opportunity to put my philosophy of nursing in my nursing practice. On my unit, one of the main

focuses has to do with pain management. I have administered many pain medications with

specific parameters. For some patients, the pain would return before they are able to take it

again. I would provide nonpharmacologic interventions such as ice, elevating the affected limb,

and music therapy. My goal is make my patients feel comfortable. In addition to providing

holistic care for the patients, I also try to incorporate their families and loved ones in the

planning. I believe that building a strong support system enhances the healing process. For one

patient, a close family member, who was also the primary caretaker, was a hard time accepting

the fact that the patient’s health was declining. Once very close, this caused a strain in their

relationship. The family member wanted to go a different route in terms of treatment plans, and it

differed from the patient’s wishes. They had different viewpoints when it came to medications

and medical procedures. Around mid shift, the family member came to me crying and

overwhelmed. I listened to her concerns, and she calmed down. I suggested that we ask the

pastor to come and continue on with the conversation. The problem was quickly fixed, and both

the patient and the family member were on board and agreed on the same treatment plan.
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Correcting the spiritual and emotional aspects in this situation definitely helped create a better

outcome.

Values and Beliefs: Then and Now

In my original Personal Philosophy of Nursing paper in NUR1100, my values and beliefs

were centered on providing compassionate care. I believed that it had a strong affect in patient

outcomes and aids in the healing process. I also believed it was important to provide holistic,

person-centered care in the nursing profession. Those values and beliefs have not changed. If

anything, I believe my values and beliefs are even stronger now that I have had opportunities to

provide this type of care. I have seen how holistic care has a major impact on different

populations, and it makes me proud that I have adopted this viewpoint since the beginning.

Patricia Benner’s theory: From Notice to Expert

Patricia Benner (2001) suggests that nurses become experts over time through education

and experiences in the field. With time, nurses are able to gain knowledge, develop skills, and

understand how to provide high quality patient care. Benner believed that this process occurs

without us even realizing or noticing it. There are five stages of nursing experiences that each

nurse will go through before becoming an expert. Stage one is novice. Individuals are just

starting their nursing career with no to little experience in clinical situations. They are inflexible

in terms of their performances and higher thinking skills. They would be taught general rules that

could be applied universally, and this would help them perform tasks. Stage two is the advanced

beginner. Individuals are new graduates working in their first jobs as a nurse or have had formal

education with a few experiences in the field. The beginners are able to demonstrate acceptable

performances due recurrent situations. They have been through enough real life situations to

recognize the next steps in the plan of care. Stage three is competence. The nurses usually have a
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couple years of experience on the job with similar situations. They are more consciously aware

of long-term goals and are able to use abstract thinking. They know what is important to focus on

and what is not. They are able to provide complex care. Stage four is proficient. Nurses are able

to see the overall picture and understand the situation as a whole. They have learned from their

experiences and are able to expect the outcome. They have more of a holistic understanding and

will use that skill to help make decisions. The last stage is the expert. These nurses have had

many experiences in the field and are highly skilled. They no longer rely on rules or principles

but rather their knowledge to guide their actions. They are able to go through the nursing process

and only focus on what really matters. Their performances are now fluid and flexible.

Present and Future Developments

I believe I am somewhere in between the novice and advanced beginner stage. I have

had some clinical experiences throughout my nursing school career, but not enough for me to

fully demonstrate acceptable performances. I need to experience more situations before I am

comfortable working independently. I have provided patient care on my own, but it was always

under the supervision of a nurse or a nursing instructor. Because I always had someone guiding

and physically being there with me, I never really had to be consciously aware of how my

actions will affect my patients. I believe I am slowly making the transition between “just tell me

what to” to being able to recognize recurrent situations and determine some type of plan of care.

To help me move on to the next stage of skill acquisition, I try to look at the bigger picture,

rather than just focusing on bits and pieces. In past clinical rotations, I never had the same patient

twice so I only focused on their “to-do” list scheduled for that day. Now that I am in immersion,

I have followed some patients from admission to discharge. I have seen how important it was to

have goals and plans. Instead of being the scared nursing student in the corner observing, I will
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try to be more active and engaged when I come across any situation. I will participate and be

more hands on. Lastly, I will use my experiences to guide my actions. This will take time, but I

will learn from my experiences in order to move on to the next stage.

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References

Benner, P. (2001). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in

clinical nursing practice (commemorative ed.). Upper Saddle

River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Schub, E. B., & Karakashian, A. B. (2018). Critical Thinking: the Nursing Process and

Competent Patient Care. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from

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