Personal conception of nursing
Several nursing theories serve as basics of nursing as a practice to make it a success. Through these theories, there exists fundamental guidance and stipulated directions in structuring the profession coupled with research on nursing and education. Moreover, through these theories, one can easily put a clear cut between nursing and other professions (Dahnke & Dreher, 2011).
Nursing theories also play various roles including defining independent functions of nursing and common terms to be used by nurses when communicating with other professionals in other health related fields (Cruz, n.d.). On the other hand, curricula that aid in nursing education cannot be designed if they are not based on nursing theories. In carrying out nursing research, new ideas and knowledge emerge through these theories.
When nurses are carrying out a study on a particular field, nursing theories assist them to discover or identify knowledge gaps. In research, nursing theories also assist in offering approaches to identify questions of study, select viable methods of conducting the research, interpret findings correctly, and validate interventions to be initiated by the researcher (Cruz, n.d.).
Metaparadigms of nursing stipulate that a “person” is the individual receiving the nursing care (Cruz, n.d.). As stipulated by the nursing ethics, clients should be handled with due care, respect, privacy, and the nurse should do anything within the reach of his/her profession to save lives. There are various attributes, characteristics, and actions that a nurse should hold (Catlin, 2012).
He or she should uphold them when providing health care to the client and this aspect is what defines nursing. A client should seek medical care based on the degree of his or her wellness, as this element defines health, whereas environment deals with the surrounding (Cruz, n.d). Environment can be either external or internal surrounding that has either direct or indirect effect on a person’s health.
Philosophical discussions from “The Examined Life”
Over 2000 year ago, Socrates uttered a phrase that formed the basics of the film The Examined Life. Socrates made it clear that “the unexamined life is not worth living for human beings” (Catlin, 2012, Para.8). Currently, it has been a common approach to adopt and focus on western philosophy. According to Critchley (2001), ethical thinking and critique in commerce hinge on some philosophers such as Bentham, Mill, Smith, Kant, Locke and Aristotle.
Socrates held that the only fundamental aspect of a human life is an examined life. Unfortunately, according to him, this life has never been available to all human beings. For the sake of trying to bring philosophy back to sanity, the filmmaker of the Examined Life examined some famous philosophers in the public arena with the aim of relating philosophy to everyday living and scenes in the American lifestyle.
Although Socrates declares to have treated women, slaves, and men at his town differently, he believed in the essentials of a strong democracy (Catlin, 2012). I believe that every nurse should cultivate and nurture humanity in whatever s/he does. According to Martha Nussbaum, a philosopher involved in the film, strong democracy should be reflective and deliberative.
With reference to ensuring democracy, it would be unfair for nursing to be administered only to a certain group of people. Just like any other commercial practice, nursing has also its ethics that nurses should uphold when dealing with a client. In the provision of healthcare, some factors may hinder efficiency. For instance, some clients, due to pressure from the surrounding environment, may not be in a position to seek health services.
The surrounding environment could restrict them from seeking health care services. For instance, some religions do not believe in seeking professional medical attention, whereas others prohibit women from delivering in hospitals (Gaarder, & Moller, 2007). These aspects underscore unfairness, and thus the nursing profession should be quite neutral and uphold professional code of conduct.
One of the core functions of a nurse and any other health care provider is to try as much as possible and save lives. However, in upholding ethics, the continental philosophy stipulates a few caveats (Critchley, 2001). Nursing should be one of the many professions that apply continental philosophy in upholding ethics when dealing with clients.
Philosophers apply the continental philosophy as a way of self-description that distinguishes them from common approaches applied by other philosophers (Critchley, 2001). With this aspect in implementation and in conjunction with guidance from nursing theories, standards of the nursing profession will improve undoubtedly because nurses will adapt their own unique ways of dealing with issues related to a person’s health status.
In trying to emerge the best, nurses will also perform their tasks without being biased. As long as a client is be with the service providers, s/he will be at a position to understand that the nurse can only work within his or her range of duties as stipulated by the profession.
An exemplar of nursing practice
I believe in providing standard services to humanity without discrimination. Being respectful to God as a supreme being, I try as much as possible to provide exemplary and satisfactory services to my clients/ patients. As part of exercising justice, it would be unethical not to provide health services to a patient simply because he or she lacks money.
One time a patient walked into the hospital to seek medication. However, the client had no enough money to pay for the services. Just like any other person in business, this was a difficult decision to make as to whether to treat the client or ask him to meet his financial obligations first. However, I could not send him away since I have always believed that a patient’s health should receive the first priority.
I attended him, and then retained some of his travel documents so that he could go and look for additional cash. After settling his bill, I gave back his documents. It is the duty of a nurse to prioritize the health of a patient. For instance, I overlooked the fact that the patient had no enough money and attended him, which means that with reference to the nursing profession, all nurses should work towards saving lives.
This goal is achievable through providing the necessary care to restore a client’s health status. Hospitals should also come up with flexible regulations in a bid to ensure that nurses offer efficient services. While operating under the guidelines stipulated by the profession, nurses also tend to work in observation of rules and regulations stipulated by the hospitals as institutions.
Administrators within a health facility should implement favorable frameworks to all classes of people. For instance, rules regarding payment of bills should allow the retaining of collaterals until bills are settled fully. It would be unfair to deny healthcare to a patient who is in short of finances. Strict regulations and frameworks tend to compromise standards of health services offered by nurses, as they tend to adhere to strict rules laid down.
My view/Conclusion
In the dynamic contemporary world, there is a challenge ahead for nursing as a profession. For instance, the profession has to take a path resisted by most, as opposed to the smooth path with least resistance. One question that we need to answer is whether the profession is teaching the appropriate tools of philosophy and methodologies focusing on the real situations at hand.
Moreover, the practice of nursing should also seek to establish compatibility with the changes taking place in the environment under which the practice is carried out (Klemke, et al., 1998). Currently, the practice of nursing is more of theory-based than being practical. Nurses tend to follow guidelines stipulated by their profession to handle different situations, as opposed to thinking critically and based on knowledge and skills come up with a solution to the problem at hand.
However, nurses cannot be blamed for this practice as they follow the nursing frameworks. By following protocols and regulations, nurses justify that the “modality is used to address issues accepted by the nursing community as within the domain of nursing and phenomena of concern to professional nurses” (Frisch, 2001. p.2).
Although nursing practices are set up to help nurses to think in a holistic manner, some nurses do not achieve the intended goal. For instance, a nurse may have a personal bias towards a patient that s/he is aware that s/he can directly influence the administration of a health facility.
This element is not justifiable and thus should not be accepted, as it does not support what one should do as a nurse. However, nurses should be in a position to adopt different techniques to handle the situation at hand, rather than following stipulated procedures that may be inappropriate to that particular issue.
References
Catlin, J. (2012). The Examined Life and the Task of Public Philosophy. Web.
Critchley, S. (2001). Continental philosophy: A very short introduction. England, UK: Oxford University Press.
Cruz, R. (n.d.). Fundamentals of Nursing Practice. Web.
Dahnke, M., & Dreher, H. M. (2011). Philosophy of science for nursing practice: Concepts and application. New York, NY: Springer.
Frisch, N. (2001). Nursing as a Context for Alternative/Complementary Modalities. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 6(2), 2 – 4.
Gaarder, J., & Moller, P. (2007). Sophie’s World: A novel about the history of philosophy. New York, NY: Berkley Books.
Klemke, E., Hollinger, R., Rudge, D., & Kline, D. (Eds.). (1998). Introductory readings in the philosophy of science. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.