NURSING PHILOSOPHY PAPER

NURS 306 – Theoretical Foundation of Professional Nursing Practice

Purpose of Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to enable the student to discover his or her personal philosophy
of nursing, as it exists at the beginning of the academic journey toward the BSN.

Approach to Assignment
In my approach to this assignment, I decided to first establish a general definition of nursing,
then to evaluate my facility’s mission statement and finally to self-reflect on what I personally
believe is most important in delivering safe and effective care to my community. I decided to
approach the assignment this way in order to better address the way that I personally function,
based on my individual nursing philosophy, to fulfill the mission of Sentara RMH; helping me to
recognize my role is integral to the corporation as a whole meeting their mission and serving our
community. This assignment reflects my personal values by highlighting the top priorities of my
nursing philosophy while delivering care to my patients; clearly stressing the character pillars
that I believe are most valuable in a nurse and what I strive for each and every shift. This
assignment gave me the opportunity to really sit down and evaluate what is important to me
when delivering care to my community; then evaluating whether I embody those characteristics
at all times or not. I learned that I truly value the importance of culturally competent care but
when reflecting on my embodiment of this I found that I easily get frustrated when an interpreter
is needed; feeling as though simple tasks take twice as long as they should and interpreter
technologies are not always reliable. The helped me to identify an area where growth is needed
to better align my daily practice with my personal philosophy of nursing.

Reason for Inclusion

I feel that my personal nursing philosophy is imperative to include in my portfolio because it
defines what I believe the function and role of a nurse is and those guiding principles that affect
my daily delivery of care; illustrating me as a bedside nurse. It also allows me to reflect on what
my values and beliefs were at the beginning of the ODU RN-BSN program and compare them to
my current beliefs and values. This either affirms how integral these values are to me as a nurse
or exemplifies how this program has fostered growth in my nursing career.

Core Competencies:
 Leadership - Demonstrates self-direction, professional accountability, and advocacy
adhering to legal and ethical nursing practice as a novice nurse.
o Articulates the values of the profession and the role of the nurse as member of the
interdisciplinary health care team: In the section of this paper entitled “Other
Health Care Professionals” I speak to how important it is to provide reliable, safe
and insightful care to our patients each and every day. This builds the confidence
that the rest of the health care team has in you as a nurse. The more often this
happens on a day-to-day basis the more positively and essential nurses’ roles in
the interdisciplinary health care team are viewed; providers and other members of
the team remember their singular negative interaction with you to a greater extent
that all of the many positive interactions they have had with you.
 Nursing Practice - Performs therapeutic nursing and interdisciplinary interventions
to deliver nursing care in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains.
o Applies appropriate knowledge of major health problems to guide nursing
practice: In the section of this paper entitled “Community “I discuss in detail the
major health problems and concerns affecting my community. I also speak about
the lack of primary care practitioners, too few specialists who’s schedules are
hard to get onto as well as the lack of community outreach program available to
our community members. This affects my daily nursing practice because when
people don’t know where else to go or how to seek help, they end up in the
emergency department many times for non-emergent conditions. This is a
testament to how our health care delivery model in my community is failing its
members and on a larger scale the Nation as a whole.
 Critical Thinking - Demonstrates critical thinking to facilitate nursing practice
through inquiry, problem solving, and synthesis.
o Uses nursing and other appropriate theories and models to guide professional
practice: Throughout this paper specific nursing theories are cited that align with
aspects of my personal nursing philosophy. Theories that supported my personal
nursing theory and were references in this assignment include Madeleine
Leininger’s culture care diversity and universality theory, Imogene King’s goal-
attainment theory and Patricia Benner’s Novice to Expert theory.
 Professionalism - Demonstrates advocacy, accountability, and adherence to
standards of practice and legal and ethical principles.
o Differentiates between general, institutional, and specialty-specific standards of
practice to guide nursing care: The American Nurse’s Association’s definition of
nursing is utilized first to establish what nursing is. Then my institution’s mission
statement is evaluated to determine how nursing fulfills these mission statements.
 Culture - Demonstrates cultural awareness and sensitivity.
o Articulates an understanding of how human behavior is affected by culture, race,
religion, gender, lifestyle, and age: In the section of this paper entitled “Culture”
I address how much culture affects the way in which individuals access healthcare
as well as how they choose to treat their ailments. Religion, gender, age and
lifestyle all factor into different cultures’ beliefs and customs as to what is
appropriate in the health care setting and what is not. Prevalent groups in my
community whom I serve on a weekly basis include Hispanic, Black American,
Russian, Mennonite, Tigrinya, Arabic and Asian individuals. All of these groups
have beliefs and experiences that affect the way in which they approach health
and illness; it is imperative to understand and respect these differences.