My Nursing Philosophy

Philosophy of Nursing
Ashley Michelle Yonek
College of Southern Maryland

The profession of nursing is certainly a personal one. We as nurses care for people in their most vulnerable place and it is important we fulfill all of their needs including the intangible ones such as spiritual, social, support, and cultural needs. In order to be our best selves for our patients we have to identify what we believe in order to anticipate how that will drive our patient care. My choice to become a nurse was truly a happy accident. I began college right out of high school with no idea of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I choose to go into business because I'm a very organized person and like everyone else I appreciate money. …show more content…
First and foremost, I value equality and respect and I believe the two go hand in hand. Regardless of an individuals race, social class, disability, addiction or what have you I believe we all have the equal right to be respected, free from judgement, and in the case of health care receive the most excellent care available. I have no way of knowing that if I had to walk someone else’s path that I wouldn't end up in the same place they are and therefore I feel it inappropriate to judge someone else against my standards and expectations. This is an important value for a nurse as we are expected to take exceptional care of all walks of life. As provision one of the ANA Code of Ethics states “The Nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes or the nature of health problems.” (Lachman …show more content…
Benner feels that we can only become a expert nurse after years of clinical experience, that we begin nursing relying on abstract principles to guide our care and transition into relying on our own experiences. (Peteprin, 2015) I feel that no matter how much schooling we have in nursing that nothing compares to experience. The only way we will become confident in our care and know what to anticipate from our patients is hands-on care. Throughout nursing school I had moments where I was nervous that I wasn't going to be good at this, I felt that no matter how well I did in class I wasn't totally prepared for the real thing. However, with practice my confidence has soared and I understand that every patient presents each diagnosis differently and book knowledge simply is not the end all be all of nursing, it really just facilitates the thought process of what is happening with each disease process and what assessments we should be performing to ensure they are progressing in the healing

Show More