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My Nursing Philosophy

Caitlyn M Wegner

Bryant & Stratton College

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My Nursing Philosophy

A nursing philosophy differs from nurse to nurse, most people are drawn to the career for

the simple fact of helping someone. While I do enjoy helping people, I feel there is a lot more

than that to nursing. There is so much responsibility within our roles while also helping and

offering aid. You can help someone in everyday life with simple tasks without being a nurse.

However, being a nurse, you have the ability to help multiple lives and make an impact on your

patients.

Personally, I had a hard time committing to a path in life. I never thought I would want to

be a nurse, until I got a job working at a hospital. At a nursing home, I really only saw the rough

part of nursing and being the only nurse to 15+ patients. It’s even worse for a patient to doctor

ratio and at that point you have to think about what kind of care these patients are receiving. My

end goal is to become a geriatric physician and somehow or someway change the care that the

elderly receive. Until then, I stuck with nursing after seeing and understanding hospital nursing.

Hospital nursing is a whole different ball game than nursing home nursing. I currently am a CNA

at a large hospital, and I love my job. I have bad days and good days as does everyone else, but I

like the impact I make on my patient’s all together, I even did as a CNA at a nursing home. I
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truly enjoy helping people and I enjoy knowing that I am making a difference in these people’s

life and hospital stays.

While working at the hospital, before starting nursing school, I had a few patients that

really touched me and helped me find a passion in nursing. Most of my patients have asked me if

I am a nursing student, when I would say no prior to taking on nursing school I usually got a

very surprised reaction and they told me that they see a really great nurse within me. Now that I

am a student, my patients just get excited for me and tell me I will make a great nurse when I am

finished. These conversations really up my confidence within my chosen career and help me feel

as though I have made the right choice. I feel that I have the traits to make a great nurse and I am

truly excited to embark on this journey following graduation this winter.

To me, to be nurse you have to be empathetic, compassionate, resilient, selfless, friendly,

a good communicator, and a good problem solver. You need to have the ability to think on your

feet in some situations and quickly make decisions for your patient’s best interest. Some of these

traits you may go into nursing with others you may learn as you go. I do believe that these are all

traits nurses should have in order to be successful as a nurse. I believe that the nurses that do not

have these traits or take the time to learn them, may not make the best nurses. You have to go

into nursing with a good heart and not everyone does.

I do believe that I will find happiness as a nurse. I have pondered about going for my

masters to be able to teach nursing. I feel there are a lot of things that should be changed within

today’s nursing, specifically incivility. I have heard many, many stories about experienced nurses

“eating their young.” I feel the best way to become a great nurse is to learn from great ones

before you, and if those that are experienced are unwilling to teach the newcomers it’s going to
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be hard for fresh graduates to fit in and get their own footing. I would love to one day have the

ability to positively impact nursing students and change improper behaviors before they start.

There are many, many things that can be changed within healthcare. It only takes one

person to make a difference. While there are many different things that I am passionate about

changing within healthcare as aforementioned, I am only one person and am not capable of

changing everything. I hope that I will continue making a differences in my patient’s lives as

their nurse, and possibly even beyond that. I have wild dreams; I just need to see how far my

ambition takes me.