My initial nursing philosophy looks at nursing from health, nursing, environment and client perspectives. I will also explore my nursing philosophy based on accountability and responsibility for nursing judgment, decisions and actions; assignment and delegation of nursing tasks; and ethical and moral obligations.
I believe that health should reflect the emotional, physical, social, cultural, spiritual and intellectual well-being of an individual. This holistic approach to defining health ensures that I understand health from all performance perspectives, which are required and considered desirable to maintain optimum health in a lifespan. Factors related to genetics and environments interact to influence the health of an individual. Thus, whenever clients make simple choices regarding health, for instance, such choices have significant impacts on their health. Health also reflects abilities to meet care and access.
I have always regarded nursing as both art and science, which allows nurses to offer care to clients. Nursing, therefore, aims to enhance, restore and sustain the quality of life even in advanced stages of life to ensure that individuals retain their dignity. In their roles, nurses must rely on systematic approaches based on critical thinking to develop nursing care plans with assessment, diagnosis, plan, implementation, and evaluation. Moreover, as a nurse, I believe in acting responsibly, adhering to the code of ethics, and conducting and upholding nursing values to ensure the quality of care.
In my nursing philosophy, I have a strong belief that the client is the most important aspect of nursing. Thus, my philosophy accounts for individuals, caregivers, families and communities who influence healthcare outcomes in clients. The client has diverse attributes, including culture, socioeconomic background, spiritual, geographical, intellectual and emotional characteristics. In this regard, I must respect and value this diversity and appreciate the client’s uniqueness. I believe that through understanding diversity, I would be able to deliver client-centred care and improve nursing practices and client outcomes. Clients have unique attributes that lead to self-determination, but they are interdependent on others in society and possess shared needs and values.
Finally, I consider the environment as both internal and external aspects that affect individuals’ health. I recognize that the environment is dynamic, and is, therefore, affects the health status of individuals. As various forces interact with environments, change is inevitable and ultimately individual health is greatly affected. Therefore, nursing practice and care should be adjusted to reflect such dynamics.
My nursing philosophy also reflects accountability and responsibility for nursing judgment, decisions and actions. As a nurse, I understand that I bear the greatest responsibility for the nursing care that I provide to clients. Moreover, I am also individually accountable for the nursing practice quality that I offer to patients. My philosophical approach to nursing practice is based on immediate care, collaboration, delegation and other activities, which support improved patient outcomes such as research, teaching and leadership. In every case, I understand that I must be held responsible and accountable for the quality of care that clients receive. In these processes, I have observed that nurses face constant decision-making situations in complex and dynamic environments in which they provide care. This implies that nursing scope changes and therefore, as a nurse, I will recognize that the judgment and decisions that I make are a part of my responsibilities, working with colleagues and delegating some roles to other nurses. In this context, I appreciate that advanced practice nurses may delegate some authority such as prescription roles to their juniors. However, by delegating such duties, the nurse has not delegated responsibilities. As such, I believe that all nurses involved in the care providers have responsibilities for judgment and decision, and they must be held accountable for their actions. I recognize that nurse accountability implies that a nurse should be liable to self and other stakeholders based on judgment and decisions made and actions taken for healthcare provision. The code of ethics and conduct should guide nurses’ actions, and it is therefore used to held nurses accountable. It promotes respect for patient rights, dignity and self-worth. Hence, my philosophy stresses nurse accountability on judgment and decisions made and actions taken when caring for patients regardless of hospital policies.
Another core element of my nursing philosophy focuses on the assignment and delegation of nursing tasks. I recognize that nurses are held accountable for the quality of care provided to clients. Consequently, they are also responsible for the assignment of nursing tasks to other colleagues and the delegation of nursing care roles to other support staff. As a nurse, I understand that it is imperative to determine individual competence during task assignments to other colleagues or healthcare workers. I believe that only qualified assignments and delegation should be based on patients’ conditions, challenges and staff knowledge, skills and expertise. Monitoring and evaluation of the assigned elements of nursing roles are responsibilities of the nurse, which should never be delegated. It is the responsibility of the nurse not to assign or delegate tasks beyond other healthcare workers’ scope of practice, qualifications, or knowledge. Hospital policies should be used to support nursing roles, including task assignment and delegation. Further, my nursing philosophy promotes nurse leadership with overall responsibilities to offer a supportive work environment that enhances collaboration, role assignment and task delegation. Nurse leaders should orientate new staff, develop skills and competencies in others and promote policies that support effective delivery of care while avoiding irresponsible use of authority on assignments and tasks. Finally, nurses should also take interest in patient education. Nurses should achieve this role through task assignments to other nurses who have similar responsibilities and accountability based on care provision. Learning should promote knowledge and skill acquisition to ensure that other healthcare workers gain sufficient skills and experience required to delivered quality care while ensuring patient safety.
Ethical and moral obligations are also aspects of my nursing philosophy. In this respect, I recognize that I owe the same roles and responsibilities to myself as to others. This implies that I have the responsibility to abide by ethical standards and moral obligations, promote integrity and safety while enhancing competencies for patient care and advancing personal growth. For effective practice, I have gone through various policy statements with nurse obligations and requirements on ethical standards. These documents act as a cornerstone for guiding nursing practice on ethical issues for professional nursing. They provide standards for a broader view on nurse and patient relationships to advance responsible care provision. As a nurse, I understand that it could be difficult to find adequate time to read all these documents sufficiently. Consequently, hospitals should have specific days dedicated to reviews of ethics and moral duties of nurses. Nurses should promote moral respect to instill moral worth and respect for all patients and colleagues. As a nurse, I recognize the importance of self-respect and extending the same respect to others. Consequently, I can develop myself professionally, and promote nurse competencies, integrity and holistic care. Nurses should therefore focus on larger provisions of ethical and moral obligations provided by various professional bodies. Nurse ethical and moral obligations reflect the trust and social contract that communities have in nurses and the nursing profession. I believe that the initial stage of observing ethics and moral obligations in nursing is self-regulation based on personal accountability.
I have also recognized that nurses should have personal responsibilities in the healthcare environment. First, nurses have the overall personal responsibility to improve patient safety and healthcare outcomes. Patient safety reflects a critical element of care. Given today’s dynamic and complex healthcare environment, I recognize that nurses face more difficulties in ensuring patient safety. Nurses also have a personal responsibility to enhance ethical practices in healthcare environments. In this regard, nurses should use their moral and ethical reasoning skills, focus on ethical nursing care and professional conduct irrespective of diversity in the healthcare environment. Finally, as a nursing administrator, I will always be assessing various interrelated complex dynamics that influence the quality of care and ensure that I promote the formulation of policies that support nursing roles in diverse healthcare settings. At the same time, I will promote policies and procedures that support safe nursing, patient education, and advocacy.
The elements covered above reflect my nursing philosophy. I assert that they can promote accountability and responsibility, assignment and delegation, ethics and moral obligations, and personal responsibilities in nursing settings. I believe that nurses should always advance the quality of care and ensure patient safety.