Nursing Philosophy

Nursing is often considered to be a field with one objective: care for patients and provide for them the highest quality of care possible. While this may seem like a simple statement, the truth of the matter is that a nurse’s job is so much more than what a large portion of society thinks it is. For this reason, my personal philosophy of nursing is a bit more nuanced than the above statement. Instead, my philosophy of nursing takes into account the quality care of patients, but also takes into consideration the need to act in an ethical manner and the need to advocate for patients and their health whenever possible, which goes above and beyond the duties of providing care. On the surface, this philosophy of nursing may also be considered too simplistic. But diving into this philosophy a bit further, it is possible to see that it takes into account all duties of a nurse and what it means to be nurse in general. Nurses need to do much more than provide care for their patients. Care may be the main objective of a nurse, but it is far from the only objective, and a nurse that does nothing more than provide care in many ways could be considered a nurse that is not fulfilling all of her duties.

Nurses must act in the most ethical manner possible at all times. This means taking into consideration the correct level of care that a patient requires while also respecting their wishes, the wishes of the family, the religion of the patient, and any beliefs that the patient may hold as dear to their life. Sometimes, the highest quality of care may go against one or all of these other factors, and would thus not be considered a good nursing practice to enable such care. Furthermore, nurses must advocate for the health of their patients while also respecting their patient’s beliefs, but ultimately with the goal of keeping the patient alive and in good health. Once again, the job of an advocate is much more nuanced than the job of a caregiver and must be taken into account when any care is administered. By keeping these three ideals of care, ethics, and advocacy at the core of the philosophy, a nurse can truly be the best that he or she can be.