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Nursing Philosophy Statement

We have different beliefs, values, ideas and opinions. Our religious views, cultural background, and surroundings all collected together build our philosophy of life and determine our lifestyle. People develop and shape their philosophy during their whole life. Sometimes certain circumstances and events may change our views, values, and priorities, depending on our social status and personal characteristics. As for me, at this stage of my life, I cannot say for sure that my philosophy of life is complete or even well-structured. However, I do have certain aspects that will probably never change. I grew up in the small city of Bila Tserkva , not far from Kiev, in a center part of Ukraine. My childhood was ordinary, kindergarten then middle-school. My upbringing had been conservative and strict. I have always been encouraged that only through hard work and self-discipline you can achieve a favorable result.

 At the age of seventeen I entered a university where I studied foreign languages, specifically English and German. To be honest, I did not want to be an interpreter, even though my parents decided that it would be beneficial for me. However, they were right. I might say a very unpopular statement and many will not agree with me, but most of the time it is a good idea to listen what your parents tell you. I appreciate my parents for everything that they did for me. They gave me a lot of valuable knowledge that is helping me to manage life and move towards my goals. Even today I still ask for their opinion and their words are always valuable to me. I strongly believe that the relationship between parents and children must be built on respect and obedience. In other words, children must listen what their parents tell them no matter if they like it or not. It does not mean that you cannot make your own decisions but you should always take into consideration what your parents tell you. As I said, I never wanted to be an interpreter but I also never saw myself as a nurse. Everything changed when I moved to the United States a few years ago. Life in this country changed my perceptions as well as my priorities. I started to see the world differently. By using experience, I gained here in collaboration with my parent’s teaching I simply concluded that nothing more is more honorable than serving others and nursing give us terrific opportunity to achieve this.

Nurse is the one of the oldest and most respected profession today that require a prominent level of responsibility, educational background, professionalism and desire to help others. As any other specialties nursing has own history, philosophy and role in society. The role of nursing have been changed through its rich history, from undesirable and underestimate job in the past to noble and prestige profession in modern time. The philosophy of nursing is a topic of separate discussion because there are no standard dogmas that can determine the philosophy of this great profession. The only thing I can do is to present my own philosophy of nursing, what I feel about this specialty and how I see myself as a nurse.

In my philosophy, to be a nurse, the person must have such important characteristics as empathy, attention to details, intuition, patience and of course dedication. The empathy help nurses to understand their patient’s needs, share emotions, and provide support when patient in distress. Everyday nurses deal with life and death and the outcome depends on how precisely nurses can pay attention to small details. The smallest mistake during patient assessment, evaluation of medical equipment, and medication administration may lead to lethal consequences. Nurses use intuition by combining scientific skills, educational background, personal experience, and critical thinking. We cannot forget that nursing is not just following physician’s orders. The nurse is an expert that can and must use own judgement when providing care. Sometimes patients are not conduct in the way we want them, sometimes they might be aggressive and uncooperative. In any case nurses must be patient and provide care with understanding and respect. The nurse cannot be a specialist without having dedication of helping people who need support and assistance. Nursing is a human’s profession and for humans.

Nursing is a great privilege to provide care and service for people. The goal of nursing is to provide care for clients in safe and pleasant environment to promote their health and wellness. During delivery of care nurses should consider client not just as a sick person who need treatment. Client is a nurse’s partner and sometimes teacher during entire process of delivery of care. In the other words nurses are not just treat patient, instead nurses actively involve client and cooperate with client in his or her recovery process and during whole wellness – illness continuum. By providing care nurses must encourage client’s independence, discuss and evaluate the plan of care with client, show respect to patient’s dignity and needs and of course put client’s recovery as the main goal in caring process.  To advocate the patient during wellness – illness continuum, nurses must create a strong own definition to recognize difference between health, wellness and illness. In my understanding wellbeing consists of physical health and emotional or spiritual. The healthy person is an individual who physically able to perform his or her role in community. In other words, health refers to somebody’s physical conditions.  The wellness is a combination of physical health and emotional wellbeing.  The illness is a lack of either physical health, emotional stability or deficit of both.  The person can have perfect physical characteristics but still consider ill if he or she psychologically depressed and vice versa.

We all may have different philosophy and idea about nursing. However, we all need to realize that nursing is a not men or women job as many believe. Nursing is a human’s profession where everybody can make own contribution to improve somebody’s life and have a great privilege to provide service for others.