St.

Paul University Philippines

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

NAME: JASON M. SUPREMO, RN,MAN

Program of Study: Doctor of Nursing Science

Course Title: Caring Science in Nursing (DNS 308)

Date: October 2017

Scholarly Project: Caring for Self Project

Objectives:

1. To explore knowing self as caring person

2. To engage in an activity that fosters caring for self.

Instructions: Submit a 2- paper (excluding cover page and references) based on the following

questions:

1. Describe an activity that fosters caring for self.

2. Discuss reasons for choosing this activity.

3. Describe what is the meaning for caring for self?

4. Write a brief concluding paragraph addressing the relevance of the content of this paper to

your personal understanding of caring as foundation for advance nursing practice in education

research and service.

5. Submit with a title page and references (at least 4-5 references) APA 6th edition format.
 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

1. Describe an activity that fosters caring for self.

It is said that “Caring is the essence of Nursing” and as a nurse should be an advocate
of this statement not only for my patients but as well as to myself. Your own body is your
ultimate responsibility that’s why things that would contribute as to how you take good care of
yourself is very crucial and should not be taken for granted. Eating is one of the many activities
which I particularly consider that best fosters caring for me. Basing on the theory of Abraham
Maslow’s Theory of Human Needs, one of the physiologic needs discussed or cited in this theory
is the need for food.

2. Discuss reasons for choosing this activity.

As what Maslows’ identified, that individuals must suffice lower level needs before
progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. In connection to this, part of the basic or
lower needs under physiologic is the need for food. For me, as a human being we need first to
nourish our self or our body before we can function well in this society. Having said that, it
reflects how we take good care of our self by eating nutritious food, a well balance diet that
keep our body alive, well nourish, and free of any diseased and health problems. Maintaining a
fit and healthy body will promote what kind of individual you are. As a nurse, it is very
important for me to keep myself and my body healthy because it simply shows that I know how
to take good care of myself before I can render safe and quality care for other people more
especially to my patients. Moreover, Ida Jean Watson’s Theory of Caring emphasized that
efficient caring promotes health and wellbeing, individual or family growth. For me, this means
that the best way to foster care to ones’ self and to others is being physically fit and healthy
which can be highly achieve by eating.

3. Describe what is the meaning of caring for self?

I’m a hard worker as well as a perfectionist, and the mixture of these two traits
unfortunately means that I also tend to burden myself. This was especially true of me while I
was in the hospital working as an Intensive Care Unit nurse and now that I am already in the
academe. I took full course loads, being a class adviser, research adviser and taking loads in
 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

teaching for the graduate school program of the college and still took on extra side projects
whenever I could. The result was often that I ran myself ragged, sleeping beyond midnight and
working almost 60 hours a week turned into anxiety attacks and sickness without fail. To make
room for all of this matter, I skip meals, stop going to the gym, and forget about my social life
completely. When we’re stressed, caring for self or simply self care is usually the first thing to
go which only makes things worse. Taking good care of oneself is paramount to the success.
Taking care of all aspects of you will increase the likelihood that you stay well because for me,
self care is not just important but it’s crucial. It’s easy to disregard taking care of ourselves
because when we’re busy and overwhelmed with so many things to do, even a small reprieve
feels like a luxury. So actually taking time to eat lunch, exercise, and hang out with friends feels
like boring. I consider that care for self helps an individual progress faster, efficient and become
successful as self care prevents “burnout”, reduces negative of effects of stress and even
eliminating stress and caring for oneself helps an individual refocus towards achieving goals in
life.

4. Write a brief concluding paragraph addressing the relevance of the content of this
paper to your personal understanding of caring as foundation for advance nursing
practice in education research and practice.

Just to think about caring for yourself or self care can be a task in itself. I never really
thought it about it sometimes but it is an essential part of living. We get so hectic in our
schedules most of the time and caught up living in our everyday lives that we forget about the
most important part, ourselves. In a narrower perspective, we sometimes forget to eat or skip
meals due to overwhelming workloads which affects of health and putting our lives into danger.
Caring for ourselves is not only measured on the way we perceived and respect our individuality
but also can be reflected the way we maintain and nourish our physical body by means of
eating. As a nurse, it is already expected from us that we are always confronted with busy
schedules due to our overwhelming workloads that commonly tend us to skip or deprive
ourselves with food in order for us to cope with work. But as we move into a higher degree of
challenges accompanied by our profession, we need to address to correct these bad habits for
us to be more productive and ready to face new variety of challenges as we hurdle along the
 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

way. Wherever field you might be, in the academe or be it in the practice, caring as an integral
part of nursing will be always prioritized for it serves as our foundation on the way we function
and render care to our patients. We need to start it first with our own self for us to fulfill our
expected roles and obligation as a health care provider.

REFERENCES:

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-96.

Tay, L., & Diener, E. (2011). Needs and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 354.

Wills M.Evelyn, McEwen Melanie (2002). Theoretical Basis for Nursing Philadelphia. Lippincott
Williams& wilkins.

Taylor Carol,Lillis Carol (2001)The Art & Science Of Nursing Care 4th ed. Philadelphia,
Lippincott.