NUR 300 Nursing Philosophy 1

Nursing Philosophy

Charles Werner

Delaware Technical and Community College

Dr. Davis

NUR 300

10/4/18
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Nursing is a second career for me. I was in the telecommunications field for ten years

prior to starting my journey of becoming a Registered Nurse (RN). During those ten

years, I felt like something was missing. I felt as if I was supposed to do something more

meaningful in my life. I wanted to help people. I wanted to be able to make a difference

in someone’s life. Toward the end of those ten years, I realized that my calling in life

was to be a nurse. I wanted to feel at the end of a long day that I did something

meaningful and worthwhile. Since I became a nurse, I go home almost every day feeling

that way.

My professional nursing philosophy is to care for my patient as a whole. Be

compassionate, non-judgmental, respectful, and honest with my patients and their

families. Advocating for my patients at all times, and care for them as I would my own

family. Use my critical thinking skills and knowledge base to best serve the patient, keep

the patient safe, and maintain a strong work ethic.

I have been a RN for six years. When I was in nursing school, my plan was to always

work with individuals with Developmental Disabilities. After graduating nursing school

and passing the NCLEX-RN boards, I was fortunate enough to find a nursing job

working with individuals with Developmental Disabilities. I have only worked with this

population throughout my nursing career. Most of the individuals that I work with are:

non-verbal, non-ambulatory, and total care. They are not able to tell you when they are

in pain or discomfort. They can’t tell you when they feel sick or experiencing anxiety.

Most of these patients have multiple co-morbidities that make up apart of their medical

diagnosis. As a nurse working with this population, your assessment skills become

heightened. You learn to pick up on subtle queues from the patients when something
NUR 300 Nursing Philosophy 3

medically is occurring. I chose Katherine Kolcaba, and her Theory of Comfort to best

describe my own personal nursing philosophy. In the Theory of Comfort, “ Nursing is

described as the process of assessing the patient’s comfort needs, developing and

implementing appropriate nursing care plans, and evaluating the patient’s comfort after

the care plans have been carried out.” (Petiprin,2016) This relates to my professional

nursing philosophy as well. I am compassionate about the patients that I work with and

I’m always assessing and advocating for my patients when they are in discomfort. I

utilize my nursing knowledge base, and implement a nursing care plan to return the

patient to their comfort baseline.

One of the wonderful things about nursing is that there are so many different avenues in

nursing that is available. I remember being in nursing school and one of my instructors

referred to nursing as a large tree. The roots and the trunk of the tree represented nursing

in general, but all the branches that extended out from the tree was the many different

aspects of nursing that someone could specialize in. Whether you are a new graduate

nurse or an experienced nurse with many years under your belt, one thing never changes.

You never stop learning as a nurse. That is why continuing your nursing education is

important. It is important to me to continue my nursing education and obtain my

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. It will only increase my knowledge base

to better serve my patients.

One important aspect of being a nurse is the ability to communicate effectively on many

levels. Whether it is with the patient, their family, physicians, or other members of the

interdisciplinary team that work with the patient. Working in nursing, you come across a

lot of different personalities. This is important to remember because you have to

navigate around these personalities to achieve the best outcome. How you communicate

with people is a direct reflection of your personality. As a nurse, it is important for me to

be compassionate, non-judgmental, respectful, and honest with my patients and their

families. It is also important to communicate clearly with your work peers to provide the

best and safest care possible. One other thing that is important to me is to have a strong

work ethic. This best serves the patients needs. Recently, for this class, we had to take a

personality test. My results from the test were that I had a “Mediator” personality. A

Mediator personality, “communicates deeply with others, “ and “projects themselves into

their work.” (NERIS Analytics Limited,2018) I feel this personality type reflects me

professionally, and directly relates to my professional nursing philosophy. I feel as if I’m

a good communicator, and commit myself to my work 100% of the time.

Safety is another vital aspect in my professional nursing philosophy. Safety, in relation

to Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is defined as: “Minimize risk of

harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual

performance.” (Sherwood, Zomorodi, 2014) As a nurse, it is our duty to keep our patients

safe at all times. This includes every aspect of nursing, such as: activities of daily living

(ADL), medication administration, etc… It is also a nurse’s job to advocate for their

patients safety. Working with patients with Developmental Disabilities, I have had to

advocate for my patients multiple times. In my own personal experience, there have been

times when a physician has ordered a medication that the patient is allergic too. I have

had to call the physician to ask them to discontinue the medication and prescribe them a

medication that they are not allergic to. I have even had to advocate for my clients when

I have been in the PACU with them in the hospital. My job as their nurse is to always
NUR 300 Nursing Philosophy 5

keep them safe. They don’t have a voice to advocate for themselves in those situations,

so I become their voice. I always treat my patients as if I would my own family. For me,

the patient always comes first.

My professional nursing philosophy directly reflects me as a nurse. I believe that it is

important for nurses to identify what kind of nurse they are. I have maintained the same

philosophy since I started my career as a RN. It’s confirmation to me that even after six

years of being a practicing RN, I still hold those core beliefs to this day. It validates to

me that nursing was my calling then, and today.

References:

NERIS Analytics Limited. (2018). ISFJ Personality (“The Mediator”). Retrieved from

https://www.16personalities.com/isfj-personality

Petiprin, A. (2016). Kolcaba’s theory of comfort. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from

http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/kolcaba-theory-of-comfort.php

Sherwood, G., & Zomorodi, M. (2014). A new mindset for quality and safety: The QSEN

competencies redefine nurses’ roles in practice. Nephrology Nursing Journal,41(1), 15-

22,72. Retrieved from

http://www.prolibraries.com/anna/?select=session&sessionID=2965