Running Head: Personal Philosophy of Nursing 1

Personal Philosophy of Nursing

Whitney Bennett

March 5, 2017

NUR 3240
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A personal philosophy is formed in nursing as a nurse accumulates experience.

This is the basis of ones day-to-day professional behavior. A personal philosophy is

built on a foundation of understanding people, environments, health and the nursing

profession. (Masters,K.) One would say that a personal philosophy in nursing is how a

nurse treats her patients.

My personal philosophy in nursing is something that my mother instilled in me

from the beginning. My mother is a nurse and has been for thirty years, she expressed to

me at the beginning of my nursing career Whitney, treat your patients as if they are

your own family members you are taking care of and you will do fine. This is a

philosophy I have carried with me for the past five years of my career and it is advice I

give to new graduate nurses.

Jean Watson is a theorist that I feel most closely relates to my own personal

philosophy. Jean Watson developed the Ten Carative Factors, which consist of

1. Formation of Humanistic-altruistic system of values

2. Instillation of faith-hope
3. Cultivation of sensitivity to ones self and to others
4. Development of a helping-trusting, human caring relationship
5. Promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings
6. Systematic use of a creative problem-solving caring process
7. Promotion of transpersonal teaching-learning
8. Provision for a supportive, protective and/or corrective mental, physical,
societal and spiritual environment
9. Assistance with gratification of human needs
10. Allowance for existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces (J.Watson )

Caritas comes from the Greek word meaning to cherish, to appreciate, to give special

attention. (J.Watson) The word caritas, I feel describes how I practice my nursing; how I

would treat my family members. In nursing we see patients at their worst, they invoke a

trust in us as nurses to care for them and to provide a healing environment. I identify
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with number four of the Ten Carative Factors. My personal philosophy is just that;

development of a helping-trusting, human caring relationship(J.Watson). Every shift, I

think to myself how would I want to be treated if I was a patient? This is not always easy,

I deal with alcoholics going through withdrawal, confused demented patients trying to

climb out of bed. My patience is tested constantly, there are days I want to quit and go

scoop goldfish at PetsMart. Then there are days where a family member hugs me and

tells me Thank you for taking care of my mother or my patient cardiac arrests and we

regain Return of Spontaneous Circulation. Those are the moments that make me realize

why I am a nurse and it makes it worth it. Just recently I was taking care of a young

woman in her thirties who was found unresponsive with a possible drug overdose. She

was extremely sick. She arrived to our unit intubated and sedated. Her kidneys had

started to shut down and her liver enzymes were extremely elevated. It was determined

that this patient might not live. The patients boyfriend arrived to the unit and I updated

him on her prognosis, I tried to prepare him for that fact that she might not survive. I was

essentially one to one with this patient until shift change. I was constantly titrating

medication, drawing labs and tending to this patients every need. Before I left at the end

of my shift, the boyfriend of this patient shook my hand and said Thank you for all that

you are doing, and thank you for answering all my questions. To me this interaction

with this patient was no different than I normally do; I cared for her as if she was my own

family member lying in that hospital bed.

The Bon Secours values that correlate with my personal philosophy are quality

and compassion. The quality value is described as I strive for excellence in the delivery

of our health services.(Credo Card) This value I feel fits my personal philosophy in that
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my striving for excellence, I can treat and care for my patients just like I would want me

or my family members treated. The second value of compassion is described as I

exhibit care, concern and sensitivity. (Credo Card) This value I exhibit every day,

especially with the thirty-year-old young woman I just recently took care of. I was

sensitive towards the boyfriend and his emotions as well as the patient.

My personal nursing philosophy can be described as treat others as if you or your

family members would want to be treated. This philosophy I feel will serve me

throughout my nursing career and provide to be great advice for new graduate nurses or

any nurse I might precept.

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References

Bon Secours Virginia Health System. Credo Card.

J. W. (n.d.). Theory of Human Caring. Retrieved March 6, 2017, from

http://www.watsoncaringscience.org/images/features/library/THEORY%20OF
%20HUMAN%CARING_website.pdf.

Masters, K. (2017). Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice (4th ed.).

Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.p.110-111.

I Pledge
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