PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY PAPER 1

Personal Philosophy of Nursing

Rebecca Yauchzy

NUR 4142 Synthesis for Nursing Practice

Christine Turner PhD, RN

10/17/2018

“I pledge.”
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Definition of Nursing

Nursing is much more than a career path that provides job stability and income. In my

humble opinion, nursing is a heavenly art form that facilitates the holistic cultivation and practice

of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The

art of nursing never stops flourishing under the light of Christ, as it constantly bears new fruit

from which healing and restoration are found. I believe that God calls specific individuals to

pursue the art of nursing, for He knows who has the mind, body and soul that are fit to carry out

the works of His hands and feet. Respectfully, there is no earthly artist that can compare to God

and His wonders, but I have confidence that our Heavenly Father instills unique gifts in the

hearts of nurses, enabling the profession to paint a picture of how God envisioned humankind.

In Colossians 3:12, God’s Word instructs Christians to take on a heart of compassion,

which I perceive to be one of the most imperative ways in which nursing professionals serve as

Christ’s disciples. My time as a student at Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

(BSMCON) has reinforced the tenants of compassion and caring not only into my nursing

practice, but also into my everyday life. Furthermore, during the past three years as a nursing

student I have been blessed enough to understand the true value that acts of service hold within

nursing, locally and globally. Servant leadership and serving others beyond patient care are ways

in which God refines the hearts of nursing professionals. Scripture emphasizes the significance

of service in Galatians 5:13, encouraging Christians to “serve one another humbly in love.” I am

forever grateful that God led to me to BSMCON to pursue a nursing career because the

education I have received has gone far beyond preparing me for licensure and instilled in me that

the God’s everlasting presence in found within the definition of nursing.

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Personal Philosophy

Thankfully, when God created man He did not design all of His children to be uniform

individuals, but He chose to construct His children with unique hearts and distinct purposes.

Upon my creation, I believe that God intentionally included a heightened sense of love and

kindness in order for me to use it as a stepping stone in reaching His ultimate purpose for me:

becoming a nurse. Acknowledging Christ’s calling for me and the compassion instilled in my

heart has fervently led me through nursing school and helped define who I am as a developing

nurse. Christ’s omnipresence throughout my lifetime has been and always will be my strength

when I am weak, my wisdom when I am ignorant, and my call home when I am lost.

The challenges presented in nursing school have not always provided a perfect platform

to showcase my compassionate heart; long hours in the same classroom, conflicting deadlines,

all-nighters studying, and exhaustion from acute care clinicals are ingredients for a short-

tempered individual who is not always willing to extend compassion and grace. Despite the

constant stress and exhaustion of nursing school, I have continued to remain true to myself and

my philosophy by asking Christ to bestow upon me courage and strength to show compassion. A

particularly trying time for me arose during the first semester of my senior year as I was faced

with the difficulty of balancing the care of my grandma after a stroke, a rigorous school

schedule, planning and preparing for the global outreach trip to Haiti, maintaining some

semblance of self-care, and processing the death of my previously mentioned grandma. In the

midst of my pain and suffering, God enabled me to use my gift of compassion to heal my heart.

It was through coaching my mother who was in Texas for three months caring for my ill

grandma that I heightened my ability to provide compassionate patient care in emotion-stricken

situations. It was through constant opportunities for teamwork with classmates in the classroom
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and clinicals that strengthened my ability to collaborate with others compassionately. Finally, it

was through providing health care in a third world country to the most gracious culture I have

ever encountered, right after the loss of my grandma, that infinitely refined my ability to not only

give compassion to those I thought needed it the most, but to receive compassion. My calling as

a nurse is not to make myself the God of every situation, but to accept my role as an instrument

to God’s Will.

Nurse Patient Encounter

A specific example of a nurse-patient encounter that demonstrates application of my

personal philosophy is an ongoing friendship with one of the patients on the unit I work on.

Upon my initial encounter with this patient, I was unaware of his past social history and focused

solely on attending to his basic human needs and his advanced patient care needs. This patient

has a chronic tracheostomy that was present upon his admission, but early into his admission

(roughly four months ago) his hospitalist and pulmonologist agreed it was an appropriate time

for him to make efforts to breathe independently again. During one of the patient’s first

Spontaneous Breathing Trials (SBTs) I was called into the room by his nurse to assist her in

calming down the patient; unfortunately, the patient was experiencing severe anxiety that further

exacerbated his decreased ability to breathe. I spent the next hour holding the patient’s hand.

speaking in a calming voice, assuring him of his safety and reminding him that we were not

going to let anything bad happen. From that moment on, the patient and I developed a trusting

relationship that most everyone has taken note of. Whenever the patient had SBTs during my

shift, he would ask for me to be in the room to calm his anxiety, until he was eventually able to

cope with the anxiety on his own. Even after he learned how to cope on his own during SBTs, he
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called me in his room regularly to assist him with small needs, but more so to engage in

conversation with me; without a doubt, our resident patient quickly became my favorite patient.

It wasn’t until two months into his admission that I was gained information concerning

his social history that briefly challenged my ability to provide compassionate, Christ-driven care.

One day, I was joking with one of my coworkers about how flirty the patient was, but that I paid

no mind to it because most patients use flattery to strike conversation; however, it was then that I

was told the patient spent over 20 years in prison for multiple counts of rape and abduction.

Initially, I failed to process the information with grace and forgiveness. I sat in disbelief that the

sweet man who always tells me to drive safely at night was a rapist. Before I could even form a

response, my coworker proceeded to ask me this question: “Do you believe knowing this

information about his past changes or voids the great friend you always claim he is today?” I

thank God for that coworker’s mindfulness because it was their inquiry that reoriented me to my

faith and encouraged me to continue providing compassionate, Christ-driven care to our patient.

In times when this patient’s actions or behaviors tempt me to pass judgement on him for his past,

I remind myself of the story in John 4 that recounts Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman at

a well. Jesus chose grace and unconditional love in a moment when most would have chosen

disgust and rejection; so, I challenge myself to live like Christ and pour out compassion even

when it is not conventional. I remain confident in The Lord and His path for me, thus I commit

my service as a Christian and a nurse to uphold His Holy and Righteous name, so that those who

have trouble in the darkness of this world can see Christ’s light through my compassion.

Values and Beliefs

As a first semester nursing student, I found it rather daunting to formally address my

naïve perspective of a nursing philosophy, much less my personal philosophy of nursing;

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however, after reviewing my original Personal Philosophy of Nursing Paper from NUR 1100, I

am pleased to discover that my values and beliefs have not strayed. Most notably, I continue to

identify the values of God, compassion, and advocacy with nursing. God’s everlasting presence

has been and will always be a pillar of who I am personally and professionally, as the Holy Spirit

guides my actions, structures my behaviors, and configures my attitudes. Compassion is another

value that ignited the fire within me to pursue a nursing career. At the cornerstone of nursing and

the Christian faith, compassion has the ability to transform apathetic obligations within the

practice of nursing to fruitful acts of service. Providing compassionate care infuses a level of

intimacy in the nurse-patient relationship, which cultivates an improved quality of care. Lastly, I

still hold true the value of advocacy in regard to my personal nursing practice. Accepting the role

of a patient’s advocate instills leadership and responsibility within a nurse, for they are assigned

a greater level of intentionality when assessing, communicating with, and caring for patients.

The core beliefs that I identify with nursing also remain true: Jesus Christ and holistic

care. There is no facet of nursing that isn’t intertwined with the unconditional love and grace of

Christ. Christ knows my heart more than I do and understands the articulation of my character

before anyone, so I know with full confidence that my desire to be a nurse is a divine calling that

represents how Christ creates compassion within nursing. Respectively, I believe that God calls

nurses to go beyond the role of a health provider by offering spiritual and emotional support

through a holistic approach patient care. I am only able to build a strong foundation for a nurse-

patient relationship when I replace medical objectification with genuine human interaction.

Benner’s Theory

At the end of my second semester of clinicals I became fearful because I didn’t feel

confident in my nursing practice. I sat in lectures for hours in the beginning of the week and was
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expected to apply the material in the clinical setting at the end of the week. I got caught up in

trying to commit lecture material to memory that I scrambled during clinical because I felt as if I

failed in learning certain things the right way. It wasn’t until I began working as a Patient Care

Technician (PCT) that I gained confidence in my skills. After four months of working on the unit

my knowledge from school transitioned smoothly into the development of clinical skills. Patricia

Benner’s Theory provides a much more extensive perspective on this concept of nursing

practice, claiming that at the intersection of a solid educational foundation and personal clinical

experience is the cyclic development of nursing skills (Benner, 2001). Benner’s Theory explores

five different levels of proficiency that nurses pass through during the acquisition and

development of a skill: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.

Benner defines the novice stage of skill acquisition as a beginner nurse lacking clinical

experience. In more perspective terms, a novice learner can be represented by a first semester

nursing student new to health care. The novice learner is constrained by the education they

receive concerning common guidelines and rules. The novice learner strictly adheres to

behaviors bound by textbook rules and only recognizes objective characteristics of skills. The

novice learner is hindered from gaining a genuine understanding of how a skill correlates to real

life situations, which occur outside the boundaries of rules. Once a nursing student has

completed multiple semesters in school, the student most likely enters the advanced beginner

stage of skill acquisition. Benner’s Theory recognizes this learner as one with prior experience in

clinical nursing situations. The learner’s experience enables them to identify recurring significant

components of skills and situations, so that they may begin to formulate guiding principles for

their nursing practice. Nevertheless, the advanced beginner is limited due to their inability to take

in every aspect of a situation and stalled ability to set priorities within their practice.
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Benner’s third level of skill acquisition is labeled as competent. The competent learner

has graduated from school and uses their two or three years of experience as a Registered Nurse

(RN) for the foundation of their performance. This learner begins to appreciate their skills or

actions in relation to long-term goals; aspects of nursing situations are understood as imperative

to goals or insignificant enough to pass by when establishing plans for skill performance. This

learner gains a sense of mastery and confidence, but still lacks a degree of speed and flexibility.

It is in the proficient stage of skill acquisition that a nurse gains speed and flexibility

when approaching nursing situations. The proficient learner has an exceptional amount of

practice in their skill and develops a perspective that encompasses the entirety of situations. A

nurse’s ability to form a nursing judgement takes place in this stage, as experience teaches them

to base decisions on their perspectives of situational norms. Finally, a learner reaches the expert

stage of skill acquisition when performance is based on their innate understanding of situations

rather than formal guidelines and principles. The expert learner has an extensive amount of

experience that supports the manner in which they make decisions and react to situations. The

skills and performances of an expert learner are described as intuitive, flexible and smooth.

Skill Acquisition

In effort to describe what stage of skill acquisition that adequately represents my current

stage of development, I humbly acknowledge that I am not fully an advanced beginner, but am

also beyond novice. As a second semester senior in nursing school with a year and a half of

experience as a PCT on a critical care unit, I am confident in saying that I am able to show

acceptable performance of nursing skills. My educational gains have advanced me past adhering

to general rules in order to perform tasks. Opportunities given during my PCT experience have

enabled me to identify familiar components of tasks and situations, so I have a solid foundation
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of principles to facilitate my nursing performance. Despite my acceptable performance and

established experience, I recognize that I have yet to complete my senior clinical immersion

hours and have roughly five more weeks left in the classroom; therefore, I err on the side of

caution and say that I am not yet an advanced beginner, but expect to be upon graduation.

Action Plan for Moving Forward

Under the assumption that I will fully achieve the level of advanced beginner upon

graduation, I will move forward to the next stage of skill acquisition by beginning my career as

an RN in a cardiac intensive care unit (ICU), pursuing continuing education hours, and climbing

the Bon Secours clinical ladder. As a new graduate RN on a cardiac ICU, one of the things I will

be expected to obtain early on is my certification in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). In

addition to my ACLS certification, throughout the first two years of my career on the unit I will

attend classes and workshops that focus on specific cardiac procedures such as, balloon pumps,

Impellas, and cardiac catheterizations. As I continue on during my initial years as an RN, I will

also be required to complete a certain amount of continuing education hours via online articles,

in-house sessions, or local seminars. After two or three years of working on the unit and

obtaining knowledge through said courses, more experience will be added upon my foundation;

thus, principles that I identified during my advanced beginner stage will become concrete and

structure my nursing practice. Finally, to reach the competent stage of skill acquisition I will join

my coworkers in climbing Bon Secours clinical ladder by completing work to get my Clinical II

recognition. I am thankful that my unit especially focuses on the clinical ladder because it gives

nurses long-term goals to work towards as they check off requirements and make plans for their

actions in accordance to the clinical ladder timeline, which enables them to reach a higher state

of efficiency and organization.

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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.