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Personal Philosophy of Nursing

Tricia Riggan

Marcella Williams, DNP, RN, CNE, CMSRN

Synthesis for Nursing Practice NUR 4140

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

October 27, 2020

I pledge.
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Personal Philosophy of Nursing

The purpose of this paper is to share a reflection on my personal growth with

considerations of my philosophy of Nursing. Over three student years I have adapted, adjusted,

incorporated, experienced, and prepared for a successful start as a hospital RN. Inspiring last

semester readings of Patricia Benner added a new look to a value of expert nurses. Benner

theorizes with study exemplars of expert nursing proficiency to learn from and strive to become.

Nursing takes a combination of experiences, theoretical knowledge, and continued education to

advance proficiency in providing care. I present as a self-proclaimed Advanced Beginner able

torecognize the value of expert nurses within my unit.

With chosen areas of discussion, I will present how my learning has adapted, changed,

and prepared me to move forward and begin a nursing career. Supportive reading references

come from From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice (Benner,

1984).

Definition of Nursing

My definition of nursing aligns with the Bon Secours mission statement. Offering good

help to those in need, especially the poor, underserved, and dying. Nursing in my mind, using

visual imagery, can be seen as a giant umbrella that incorporates so many trait roles each nurse

holds the bottom handle. These include having a sound healthcare foundation, supportive

continued education, population awareness, advocacy, teaching abilities, alleviating suffering,

community resource, prevention techniques, understanding life stages, using collaborative

communication, supporting family needs, and a desire for optimal health. (Bon Secours, 2020)

Nursing education becomes important for the foundation, but I recognize that it will be

ongoing and allow for novice level students to move forward. The Dreyfus Model, referenced
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by Banner, highlights the five student levels of proficiency: novice, advanced beginner,

competent, proficient, and expert. My strong educational background, achieving my Bachelor of

Nursing (BSN) degree, will help me begin with confidence at my Novice level to enter the

workforce. Continued education (CE) will help advance my skills, with supportive experiences

as I continue to advance up the proficiency levels.

Caring for the patient seeking optimal health outcomes will always be a driving force

behind the work that I do. I understand and value the importance of advocating for my clients,

and building a relationship of trust. Open communication helps set goals of providing

individualized optimal health options and setting goals to meet client care needs.

As a nurse, I will need to customize my care. My care should be unbiased, regardless of

income, age, population, and downstream factors that could influence compliance. But

awareness may help me seek and recommend unique resources using case management.

Nursing care takes on a service role, where I will use my skills, knowledge, and training

to provide individualized, collaborative care is that is patient centered. In service, I will care for

the ill, disabled, and dying in various life stages. I will recommend and advocate care in

consideration of my unique patient needs and concerns.

Personal Philosophy

My philosophy as a nurse is to value every life and recognize my responsibility to

provide competent care to all patients for their healthcare needs. Every patient situation will be

unique with care plan customization. I will place importance on teaching and providing

supportive care needs. I must recognize and be comfortable with my own beliefs and accept they

may differ from others. My ability to assist, influence, and provide quality care will be effective

with my ability to establish trusting communication. Ethical standards will drive me to not seek
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an easy solution, but to search for the best options of care I can provide to meet collaborative

care recommended desired outcomes.

Communication skills become incredibly important in the overall service of providing

care. Developing interprofessional relationships will connect a multi-talented network of

caregivers to my patients and their families, to develop ideal care plans.

Values and Benefits

I began with a strong classroom and textbook learning foundation, I began fresh with new

learning from prerequisite courses: Anatomy, Microbiology, Ethics, Med Math, and Psychology.

It was all fascinating and straightforward. Surprising was the importance of combining skill

experience with considerations to the individualized patient situation. Providing nursing care

continuously builds learning from theory knowledge, experience, continued education, and

situation awareness.

Beginning Nursing School at Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing, we stepped

back to build a broad foundation comprising of topics like Florence Nightingale, Bon Secours

Mission, developing care plans, and learning about the many roles expected of a nurse. Test

questions became more challenging considering the status of the unique patient with

comorbidities. I evolved from a task-oriented thinking to conceptual provider. Now a patient

advocate offering individualized holistic support.

Teachings and experiences were building the needed foundation, even though I could not

always see the purpose that would later reveal itself. To exemplify, a simple early exercise of

learning to take blood pressure manually seemed pointless. But that basic task evolved over

three years, to an understanding of the impact of Hypertension, when left untreated, can lead to

multisystem organ decline and decrease life expectancy. Detecting high blood pressure early,
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with treatment, can prevent the increased pressure and strain on the vascular system. My ability

to think like a nurse, in the beginning, was simply to accomplish task. Now, I can appreciate the

path my education took to prepare my mind for the higher level of broad thinking needed to

provide safe and optimal care.

Nursing school was a unique blend of core content learning, conceptual thinking,

population awareness, and reinforced with learning from in-person experience. It seemed silly

initially to watch a video of how to use crutches on stairs. Yet not so simply taught to each other

in class. Then skill turned to action assisting an 80-year-old patient, hard of hearing, to ambulate

to the bathroom with his new crutches. Learning and experiences blended to strengthen

foundational learning. And the benefits of this change enabled me to become a better care

provider.

Nurse Patient Encounters

My opportunities were extensive for experiences throughout my practicum hospital

experience days. One influential day stands out where I felt the full accumulation of nursing

care that touched upon so many categories of the Bon Secours Professional Practice Model.

Categories including community focus, person-centered care, professional excellence, ministry

leadership, research/evidence-based practice, collaboration, faith-based, population health,

teaching, self-care and wellness, safety, and reliability. (Bon Secours Nursing Professional

Practice Model, 2016)

Sharing my personal experience, at an advanced level practicum, i arrived to meet my

patient, intubated in the CVICU, family awaiting bedside for next steps, following their difficult

decisions to remove their mother from life support. My day was to shadowing 1 to 1 nursing care

from an expert nurse to help, and we were going to help a patient pass comfortably with their
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family present. It was on this day that I felt the full nursing umbrella of care I spoke about

earlier come into action. My role model expert nurse exhibited an amazing presence. I was

invited by the family to participate in their experience that I will always appreciate.

The family was educated about every action approaching, faith support was provided,

comfort measures were discussed, pharmacy made recommendations, physicians double verified

lack of brain activity, communication was collaborative, and care was individualized as she was

removed from life support. The day was the most powerful learning experience about being

compassionate I had throughout nursing school.

From Novice to Expert - Benner’s Theory

Benner’s Theory recognizes the five stages of nursing student proficiency levels

of the Dreyfus Model and applies this to the nursing practice. Benner uses expert exemplars to

describe scopes of practice attaining nursing excellence. Not all nurses will become experts,

Benner shares. Experts shed light on how they interpret settings, focus on whole situations,

prioritize, recognize, and provide care in a more holistic approach. By studying expert nursing

care with an interpretative approach, new areas of clinical knowledge can be explored, and

consultant nurses are created. Less proficient nurses can gain from expert nurses sharings.

Seven domains of nursing practice are discussed, on which I can reflect. For example,

reading chapter “The Teaching-Coaching Function considers Timing: Capturing a Patient’s

Readiness to Learn”. I agree that a patient needs to be at a state willing to learn for teaching to

be effective. Assessing the ideal teaching time can be difficult. The expert nurse recognized a

patient’s attitude change from a gloomy depressive state to one where the patients were asking

questions as an ideal time to present teachings (Benner, 1984, p.79).

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Stage of Development- Skill Acquisition

With a review of the five stages of the Dreyfus Model, “Stage 2: Advanced Beginner”

best defines my current stage of proficiency for many skills. For many unit-specific skills, I

could regress to a novice until exposure. I do bring experience to my unit, as a cardiac monitor

and care technician (PCT) of three years. My skill levels are at an acceptable level with support

from prior experiences on many tasks supported by my PCT, lab, and practicum experiences.

For example, urinary catheter insertion, while only performing the skill twice in immersion, I

have assisted over 20 times. I feel with recommendations, guidelines, and cues from

experienced staff preceptors I can complete this skill set independently with supervision.

Setting priorities is difficult in the advanced-beginner stage. Allow my preceptor to

interject will help point out priority needs and time-wasting distraction from their higher levels

of experience. Benner highlights an exemplar testimonial describing a novice nurse, taking an

EKG, getting caught up taking the time to explain the test to the client vs. report the concerning

heart rhythm. Priority needs to be on life-saving measures (Benner, 1984, p22-25).

Action Plan Moving Forward

Graduating from nursing school is my dedicated strong foundation support combining

practical knowledge and in-person skill experience. It the beginning of my proficiency ladder.

My next two to three years will help solidity and advance my skill as I strive to become

competent in my nursing skills. I can seek out opportunities to become more involved such as

participating with unit-based councils, and membership in nursing societies, and advanced

certification opportunities of interest.

Incorporating self-care plays an important support role to stay healthy, avoiding burnout,

and find enjoyment in my career. For me that will include developing ideal workday schedules,
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daily 10,000 walking step goals, healthy eating goals, staying active with my family, and

pursuing my hobby interest to build enjoyment outside of my work.

In my career advancement, I will look forward to knowing that numerous opportunities

for me and that the paths for a successful career ahead are many. These can begin by following

reputable nursing education sources for readings, participating in a unit-based council, and

seeking leadership roles when ready.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that is only the beginning. An amazing RN career of opportunities is

ahead. I am starting with a strong broad foundational education and proficiency level of

advanced beginner ready for an entry-level RN position. I will seek to gain experience, build

confidence, and gain opportunities that advance me next to competent levels with conscious

awareness.
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References

Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice.

Melona Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Bon Secours Nursing Professional Practice Model [Video file]. (2016). Retrieved 2020, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWmrFS1LQPk

Offering Good Help to Those in Need. (2020). Retrieved October 26, 2020, from

https://www.bonsecours.com/about-us