Running head: Nursing Philosophy 1

Nursing Philosophy

Sara Meekins

Bon Secours College of Nursing

NURSE 3240

June 15, 2017

I pledge
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Nursing Philosophy

Developing a personal nursing philosophy takes time and it continues to grow

throughout the years. A nurses philosophy is the backbone to every nurses way of thinking and

how they approach every patient. My philosophy starts with the basics of treating your patient

how you would like someone in your own family treated. Everybody comes from a different

background and has had many different experiences and you have to be accepting of that person

for everything they have gone through and what they are going through now. Also, a persons

environment is something that needs to be taken into account and that includes the environment

they are going to go to once they leave you. Healing needs to take place in environment that is

conducive to that. A persons home environment needs to be taken into account and can be cause

for a lot of stress for people especially when they are in the hospital. Also, a person cannot heal

or continue on a healing path if they are returned to an environment that does not allow that.

Health of a person is the entire person, from their well being, thoughts, and spirit. If one of these

parts is not accounted for in the healing process then there will be barriers that prevent the person

from healing as a whole. Lastly, the nursing profession is one that needs continued education in

order to continue to push nursing into the future. Once someone becomes labile in their

education then they lose the ability to advance themselves and their practice into a stronger

direction.

I really appreciate Jean Watsons Theory of Human caring and have taken away a great

deal to shape my nursing philosophy. Watsons clinical caritas breaks down her theory into ten

areas that express her philosophy. One of Watsons caritas, be sensitive to self and others by

nurturing individual beliefs and practices expresses the role of the differences between each of

us (Rodrigues dos Santos et al., 2014, p. 81). I relate this to my own personal nursing theory by
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being accepting of the differences between people and their backgrounds. It is important to

always understand that there is more out there than the experiences that you have personally

gone through and to be accepting of those. Another of Watsons caritas, use creative scientific

problem-solving methods for caring decision making expresses her role education has on

nursing (Rodrigues dos Santos et al., 2014, p. 81). Watson believes in the effectiveness of

scientific methods to create the best patient outcomes, as I also believe in the need for continued

education to create these methods and keep them advancing.

The continued education in my personal philosophy goes hand in hand with one of the

Bon Secours values, growth. Bon Secours values growth of the company in order to meet the

needs of the patient and also the growth of the employee. Bon Secours as well as I understands

the value of continuing to gain knowledge but also to keep up with the latest changes and

advancements in healthcare. Another Bon Secours value that my personal philosophy relates to is

respect. Bon Secours believes in the value that every person holds and each person should be

treated as such. My personal philosophy is to treat each person with the love and respect that you

would want your loved ones to receive.

A patient encounter that portrays my personal philosophy of nursing, was when I took

care of a patient with no family or friends who came from home with no place to go. This

particular patient had some dementia and came from a poor living situation. I was able to get

case management involved and the patient was actually awarded a court appointed guardian to

help with future goals. The patients room was also near the back of the floor and the patient

moaned loudly when no one was in the room. I was able to move her closer to the nurses station

so she was not scared and did not feel alone, since she could now always see someone. I was

able to place some fresh flowers on her side table, for her to know that she was carried for since
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she had no friends or family around. Lastly, I was able to sit with the patient and find out what

she wanted most, just to have someone to stay with her and have a conversation. I counseled the

chaplains and they rounded on her daily to help her express her concerns and give her an

additional hand to hold.

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References

Rodrigues dos Santos, M., Szylit Bousso, R., Vendramim, P., Freire Baliza, M., Deguer Misko,

M., & Silva, L. (2014, July 2014). The practice of nurses caring for families of pediatric

inpatients in light of Jean Watson. REv ESC Enferm USP, 48, 80-86.