Philosophy of Nursing

Jamie Driggs, RN

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

Professor Trina Gardner, MSN, RN

NUR 3240

April 19, 2020

Honor Code “I pledge..”

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Philosophy of Nursing

While the nursing profession has been around since the mid-1800s, it has seen countless

changes throughout its years, most of which were set forth by passionate nurses with strong

beliefs and values in the practice of nursing. When assigned with the task of writing my own

personal nursing philosophy, I was immediately intimidated. How could I verbalize my personal

nursing philosophy? Do I even have one? Who am I to write such a thing, when compared to all

of the amazing nurses who paved the way and have shaped our profession into what it is today?

Then the realization occurred to me: this is not meant for comparison. This will be a definition of

my own personal values and beliefs in regards to the nursing care that I provide to my patients

every day. It will not be right or wrong; life-changing or underwhelming. It will simply be mine,

and I intend to share it here.

I view nursing as a highly respected profession; one that represents a delicately intricate

combination of both art and science, which revolves around a common core: patient care. To be a

nurse, one must possess the abilities to make thorough and accurate assessments, utilize critical

thinking skills in fast-paced environments, and to put the values of their patients’ ahead of their

own. While I have many values and beliefs that affect my nursing care, the values that I hold

highest within my personal philosophy of nursing are advocating for our patients, teamwork and

collaboration with other nurses and other specialties within the collective healthcare team,

patient safety, ensuring our patients are able to make fully informed decisions on their treatments

and plans of care, and providing education to our patients on levels that match their

comprehension abilities.

The top two Bon Secours values that support my personal philosophy of nursing are

compassion and human dignity. According to the Bon Secours Mission Values, compassion is
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defined as the commitment to provide mercy and tenderness while understanding the importance

of both “being with” and “doing for” our patients, and human dignity is defined as recognizing

the sacredness of life by providing respect and inclusion to everyone. (Bon Secours website,

n.d.) It is never my place to pass judgement on others, or to decide what type of quality care I

should provide to one patient over another. It is my own personal value that I will provide high

quality, compassionate nursing care to my patients’ equally, no matter their race, gender, sexual

orientation, or personal history.

Compassion forces us to recognize that it is also highly important to acknowledge that

not all problems can be solved when it comes to healthcare. In some situations, the very best that

you can do is to simply ‘be’ with your patient and/or their family members. This was something I

had to learn firsthand as an ICU nurse. I once cared for a patient who was facing a terminal

diagnosis. While he was still capable of making his own decisions, he elected to change his code

status to Do No Resuscitate (DNR) and to withdraw certain life support measures once his

family was able to be with him.

Throughout that entire shift, despite any nursing urges I might have felt to initiate an

intervention such as hourly turning, drawing labs, or adjusting his oxygen flow rate, I had to

remain diligent to put his values and decisions ahead of my own, and to simply be there to

provide compassion and reassurance for his family while keeping him as comfortable as

possible. It was hard to do, but absolutely appropriate and in line with my nursing philosophy.

Experience like that will never be something that can be learned or taught in a classroom, but

only by personal experience.

While it is very difficult to choose just one, the theoretical nursing philosophy framework

that I feel most closely aligns with my own would be the one by Patricia Benner. Her nursing
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philosophy focuses on the areas of reasoning, critical thinking, self-awareness, and strong ethical

values. Benner defines the person (or patient) as someone who is living in the world as a “self-

interpreting being, that is, the person does not come into the world pre-defined but gets defined

in the course of living.” (Masters, 2020, p.60) I believe that this distinction of individuality is an

extremely important aspect of planning and executing nursing interventions, as everyone is

unique and has a custom set of knowledge, beliefs, and values based on the different experiences

they have encountered throughout their lives.

In conclusion, I have learned that every nurse has a personal nursing philosophy, whether

they have defined it or not. My own revolves around compassion, the preservation of human

dignity, and of clinical expertise. I have learned the importance of taking the time to understand

one’s own beliefs and values to establish what makes nursing practice important to them, and to

help them see how they can continue to remain engaged, inspired, and innovative in their

respective nursing specialties. The path to professional nursing as we know it today was not

paved by one single nurse, but by so many who each played vital roles in the profession’s image

and development.
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References

Bon Secours website. (n.d.). https://www.bonsecours.com/about-us/mission

Masters, K. (2020). Role development in professional nursing practice (5th ed.). Burlington,

MA: Jones & Bartlett.