Many young people do not think seriously about their future profession before choosing an educational institution and specialty. Most of them are disappointed in this wrong choice afterward and spend their lives doing other things. It does not matter if they made this choice themselves or if their parents, friends, or idols made it for them. However, not all professions involve accountability for human well-being.
There is an opinion that nursing is not an occupation, a hobby, or a profession. In a broader sense, nursing is first and foremost a way of thinking and a meaning of life. It is not easy to describe the representation of its philosophy because it is a kind of philosophy itself. No one can understand caring unless they “learned it from within, from themselves” (Watson, 2018). A person who does not consider the importance of helping their own kind will not find meaning in it – because caring is the primary nursing principle.
On the other hand, the philosophy of caregiving can be divided into key elements, each of which is tightly interconnected. At the center of everything is a human being, a living being, which is the essential element. The next component is health – the human mind and body condition. Its standard and wholesome states are inherent in nature, and in case of deviation from the norm, it must be stabilized. The environment is all that affects the person, and their health, both positively and negatively. The essence of the existence of a nurse is the constant care, compassion, and assistance to the person to normalize their health shape. Furthermore, good nursing education is crucial for a specialist to provide all the necessary help to the people (Smith et al., 2019). The best nurse is the one who balances the “difference between the idealism of nursing education and the realities of clinical practice” (Maykut, 2022).
Working in the medical field involves constant, daily training. It is not necessarily attending training sessions, but it can also be a personal, practical experience. As for the practical part, both science and art are intertwined: for example, despite the scientific approach to all problems, a surgeon during surgery or a psychotherapist unraveling deep problems of a patient’s personality may look like artists to an outsider.
References
Maykut, C. A., & Bissonnette, A. (2022). Contemplating what matters: A student’s personal nursing philosophy. International Journal for Human Caring. Web.
Smith, S., Elias, B. L., & Baernholdt, M. (2019). The role of interdisciplinary faculty in nursing education: a national survey. Journal of Professional Nursing, 35(5), 393-397. Web.
Watson, J. (2018). Unitary caring science: Philosophy and praxis of nursing. University Press of Colorado.