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Nursing Philosophy and Professional Goals Statement

Desiree Lund

Grand Canyon University: NSG-310

December 8, 2019
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Nursing Philosophy and Professional Goals Statement

There are many different types of nursing theories and philosophies around. These are

mostly broad ideas that encompass a way nurse’s think when delivering care to patients. These

are important for nurses to develop and recognize as there is no set way to care for patients

according to a nursing theory and they vary since there is no set nursing theory that fits every

kind of patient situation. Nurses should be aware of the nursing theories and what they generally

encompass to help them develop their own personal philosophy and their overall approach to

patient care.

Personal Approach to Nursing Care

My personal approach to nursing care is centered around patient care and individual

wellness. Looking back through what I have learned and applied throughout the semester I feel

like my philosophy for nursing practice focuses a lot on how the patient feels and what we as

nurses can do to help them feel better in order to promote healing. I think a lot of this revolves

around the idea of care and caring for an individual in order for them to feel better and to care

about themselves in order to feel better as well. I feel as though my personal philosophy of

nursing care most closely aligns with a mixture of both Orem’s self-care deficit theory and

Watson’s philosophy and science of caring. This is because like Orem, I believe that patients

sometimes need help in getting better and promoting healing and this is where the nurse comes in

to help with self-care deficits and to overall promote and provide the patient with a sense of well-

being (Friberg & Creasia, 2011). On the other hand, I also identify with Watson’s philosophy of

caring because care is the integral part of a nurse’s job and what sets them apart from other

healthcare professionals. Patient care helps to promote healing in another way by satisfying

human needs (Friberg & Creasia, 2011). I feel as though both of these theories are similar to my
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own personal theory since I believe that holistic care is important as well as helping patients to

promote a sense of wellness is important in overall patient care and healing.

There has been a lot that I have learned and experienced throughout the duration of this

last semester. It was all so exciting to start applying the information we had learned in pre-

requisite courses as well as in class and lab this semester to our level 1 clinicals. These

experiences of applying care outside of the classroom in a clinical setting has helped to shape my

personal nursing philosophy. In class we focused on holistic care and for caring for patient’s in

terms of more than just their illness and how that requires taking into account many factors. In

clinical I found that this was something I struggled with as it was often difficult to think outside

of the patient’s illness and trying to complete my tasks at hand without having considered other

factors. For example, I would be so concerned with making sure I got all of the components for a

patient’s vital signs and making sure that they were as comfortable as possible that I would often

forget to evaluate them and what they meant to make sure there wasn’t anything abnormal that

needed to be addressed. This has shown me that I need to be more aware of other aspects of

client care rather than just being so task oriented and making sure I am completing the task at

hand correctly.

Professional Goals for Skills Development

There are a few goals I would like to achieve with the remainder of my time in the

nursing program. The first is that I would like to continue working on thinking more holistically

in terms of patient care and providing more individualized care to my patients. Another is that I

would like to push myself to maintain higher standards of care and to continue to ensure the best

level of care possible for my patients. Lastly, I would like to be more confident in my skills and

abilities which I am sure should come with time and as I learn and apply more but I do plan on
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pushing myself to be more confident in my decision making and application of learned skills. I

feel if I continue to push myself throughout the nursing program and focus on these concepts that

it can help to solidify my personal nursing philosophy and can help improve my approach to

patient care overall.

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References

Friberg, E., Creasia, J. Conceptual Foundations: The Bridge to Professional Nursing Practice.

[Pageburstls]. Retrieved from https://pageburstls.elsevier.com/#/books/9780323299930/