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Nur 3240: Personal Nursing Philosophy

Personal Nursing Philosophy

Megumi Miyajima-Olguin RN

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

Nur 3240

Trina Gardner, MSN, RN

11/21/20

“I Pledge”
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Nur 3240: Personal Nursing Philosophy

Introduction

My personal philosophy on being a nurse has been ever-changing over nursing school

and through five and a half years of practicing as a registered nurse. As a nursing student, the

idea of being a nurse was obviously more abstract and idealized. As a registered nurse, I have

worked in three different settings and gleaned different perspectives of nursing. At the heart of

each interpretation, there is the common thread of having a genuine desire to be a proponent of

wellness to others. A nurse cannot function appropriately without this desire.

The Development of My Nursing Philosophy

As a nursing student, I looked at nurses in an idealized light. They were completely

selfless, strong, superheroes that knew everything. The nurse’s I learned from were all so

confident and quick, and they knew how to answer most any question I asked. My definition of

wellness was very generalized, also. Wellness was the absence of illness.

My second nursing job changed me. I worked on an understaffed medical/surgical

oncology floor for two and a half years. I was supremely unconfident in my abilities; as I was

unable to comfortably manage my 7:1 assignment. I was filled with a lot of self-doubt. We care

for a lot of chronically ill patients and, by my old definition of wellness, these patients would

never achieve wellness. I then altered my definition of wellness to be variable and dependent

from patient to patient. Wellness was now the patient’s personal experience of comfort within

their lifespan.

Comfort was a huge theme, particularly with the inpatient hospice people. One of the

greatest patient experiences of my life was caring for a dying man that was transitioned to

inpatient hospice. I was not only caring for him; I was caring for his family. His wife and
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Nur 3240: Personal Nursing Philosophy

daughters were camped out by his bedside. We got to talk about his life, and we listened to some

of his favorite songs while I was doing patient care (turning, medications, bathing, and so on). I

became part of their family for a small amount of time. I came in to do my checks and he had

passed while they were sleeping. I had to break the news, but the right words came out and we

all hugged. The wife nominated me for a Daisy Award, and I ended getting Daisy of the Month.

It is one of my proudest nursing achievements. I still keep in touch with the family, also.

Through this experience I found that wellness includes the patient within their lifespan (however

long or short), their comfort, their dignity, management of their illness through therapeutic

interventions, and support for their family/friends.

My third and current nursing job has been in the emergency department for the past 2

years and counting. My encounters with patients are briefer. The previous wellness definition has

been augmented to meet the patient’s immediate needs. I monitor making sure the essentials of

airway, breathing, and circulation are intact. Comfort is now more the absence or decrease of

pain. Still, there is the thought of how this patient will manage at home. There is a great deal of

family care, too. Family and friends are usually very upset in these emergency situations and

their comfort affects the environment of patient care.

Patricia Benner’s Clinical Wisdom in Nursing Practice is most congruent with my

philosophy in that it was derived from direct observation of nurses practicing and questing nurses

about clinical situations. She highlights seven domains of nursing practice, three of which are:

“…the helping role, the teaching-coaching function, the diagnostic and patient monitoring

function…(Benner, 1989).”
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Nur 3240: Personal Nursing Philosophy

I see the helping role is about wanting to be a proponent of wellness in your community,

the main point in my philosophy. The teaching-coaching role is about the learning and teaching

process that is ongoing throughout a nurse’s practice. The nurse has to provide education to

patient and to family/friends. Utilizing the family/friends in patient care gives the patient extra

help. The diagnostic and monitoring domain is the core nursing practice of assessing and

reassessing their patients to watch them and see how treatments benefit or hider their journey

towards wellness. Nurses also have the role of striving to make practices and work environments

better through evidence-based studies. This all collectively embodies the nursing practice. These

domains are all important, but they will not be effective without that drive of wanting to help

others; that common thread.

Bon Secours Mercy, the hospital system I have been with for four and a half years, has

values that support my philosophy of desire to help others at the root of the nursing practice. For

example, the value of respect is to provide indiscriminate care for everyone while keeping their

dignity intact. The other value of integrity is the moral and ethical mindset and behavior that is

unwavering. At the central of all eight of Bon Secours/Mercy’s values is that innate desire to

help others and be a servant within the community (Bon Secours Mercy Health, 2020).

Conclusion

It is my belief that nursing cannot be practiced appropriately without a genuine

desire to be a proponent of wellness (however that is interpreted by the individual) and a helper

to others. Having that strong care makes us assess/monitor better, educate efficiently,

communicate with patients/family/friends therapeutically, and research/act on ways to improve

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Nur 3240: Personal Nursing Philosophy

our delivery of care. Without this desire and care, the practice of nursing is empty and

impossible.

References

Benner, P. & Wrubel, J. (1989). The primacy of caring: Stress and coping in health and illness.

Menolo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Bon Secours Mercy Health. (2020). Mission and Values. https://bsmhealth.org/mission-values/