Advanced Practice Nurses are vital players in the contemporary healthcare environment. Their scope of practice enables them to provide a wide range of care services to patients and be an integral part of healthcare teams. The nature of nursing practice means that it is impacted by various personal values, attitudes, and beliefs that shape nurses’ views of practice issues and help them navigate their roles successfully. Formulating a personal philosophy of care can be helpful to nurses because it aids in identifying the core principles that the nurse will apply in their work and aligning them with those of prospective employers to fit in with the organizational culture of care. The present paper will seek to describe my personal philosophy of practice with respect to medical care, communication with patients, reimbursement, and billing. The essay will also discuss how I intend to align my philosophy with that of prospective employers. Finally, because reimbursement is an important topic to consider in preparing for employment, the paper will describe a plan for negotiating salary and benefits that I will apply in my first job.
Philosophy of Practice
Medical Care
In describing my philosophy of practice, it is essential to outline the aim of each process and the guiding principles behind it. Firstly, I believe that medical care should be aimed at prolonging people’s healthy lives while improving their quality of life. The prevalence of chronic diseases and conditions in the contemporary world is rather high, and many of them have a negative impact on people’s quality of life. Here, care providers have a duty to help individuals live better lives, even if their condition cannot be fully treated. In acute and life-threatening conditions, the focus is typically on preserving an individual’s life. Still, it is essential to understand that some treatments could do so while reducing their quality of life dramatically, which might not be in the patient’s best interests.
Aligning medical care with the principles of independence, autonomy, and respect is essential to make treatment choices and support ethical practice. The principle of independence is integral to the quality of life since people need independence to remain healthy and happy. In patients whose chronic conditions do not allow for full independence, care providers should seek to help patients achieve the highest possible level of independence appropriate for their health. The principle of patient autonomy is crucial to decision-making because it helps to ensure that the medical care benefits the patient by supporting their health and life goals. In addition, respect for patients is crucial to medical care because it facilitates ethical practice and contributes to the relationship between patients and providers while also protecting patients. Finally, it is also essential to note the importance of evidence-based practice. Continuous development of science is one of the primary characteristics of the modern age, and care providers need to utilize this advantage appropriately to provide high-quality care (Stanley, 2011). Selecting treatments based on research evidence can support health professionals in helping patients to reach their health and wellbeing goals safely and efficiently.
Communication with Patients
The second aspect of my practice philosophy is communication with patients, which, I believe, should aim at building a therapeutic relationship with patients. This concept emphasizes the importance of developing a connection with patients and forming a partnership based on shared goals, mutual trust, and respect. I believe that therapeutic relationships are essential to medical care since they allow personalizing care and tailoring it to the patient’s needs. For this reason, the concept fits well with my philosophy of medical care and could serve to help translate it into practice settings.
There are three fundamental principles on which communication should be based to enable the formation of a therapeutic relationship: trust, transparency, and patient engagement. Trust is an essential principle in the care process, and providers should seek to earn it in order to benefit patients. When patients do not trust their care providers, they might not adhere to their recommendations, which postpones treatment delivery. The principle of transparency means that patients should receive full information about their diagnosis, treatment options, and other relevant areas of care and care planning. By practicing full disclosure with patients, care providers can earn their trust while also supporting patient autonomy in decision-making. Finally, patient engagement is also an important factor that improves the relationship between care providers and patients. In accordance with this principle, health professionals should seek to include patients in the decision-making process when possible. This will also contribute to patient autonomy and trust, making the patient a partner in the care process rather than the subject of it.
Reimbursement and Billing
The processes of reimbursement and billing distinguish healthcare from other industries since they can be rather complex to navigate. In my philosophy of practice, the main goal of reimbursement and billing is to support fairness in care delivery by ensuring that providers are compensated adequately for their services. These processes should also promote compliance with relevant rules and regulations on the organizational or state level. Consequently, the main principles guiding reimbursement and billing for me are justice, accuracy, and clarity. On the one hand, care providers should seek to be reimbursed in accordance with the services rendered and avoid extra or hidden fees, thus adhering to professional and regulatory standards (Buppert, 2018). On the other hand, it is essential to fill in the necessary documentation and communicate with payers correctly to avoid inconsistencies or other issues. By practicing accuracy and clarity in their documentation and communication with payers, nurses and other care providers can ease the processes of reimbursement and billing and promote fairness in compensation. Learning about various standards and requirements is thus essential to applying reimbursement and billing in practice successfully.
Alignment with Organizational Philosophy
Although my practice philosophy will guide my work as an APN in the future, it is possible that it will differ from the care philosophy promoted by my future employer. In aligning personal philosophy with the organizational one, there are some important considerations. First of all, it is essential to evaluate whether or not the corporate philosophy complies with professional ethical standards and rules adequately. Because many of these ethical standards are integral to my philosophy, significant dissimilarities could mean that the organization supports unethical practice. In this case, it would be best to find a different employer or, if this is not possible, to encourage positive practice change through the adoption of professional ethical standards. If the dissimilarities are minor, I would examine their significance and adjust appropriately. For example, if the organization has similar ethical values but views medical care in terms of its dimensions and processes rather than goals and values, I would combine this view with my personal values, thus developing my philosophy of medical care further. While these adjustments may not be straightforward and could require clarification with colleagues or leaders, I believe that a positive institutional philosophy of care could help me to enhance my own philosophy, making me a better nurse.
Negotiating Salary and Benefits
Negotiating salary and benefits is crucial since it helps to ensure that both the employer and the employee are satisfied with contract terms. The first step of the plan for me would be to formulate a set of realistic expectations with respect to salary and benefits since this would give me a clear stance to be negotiated. Then, I would follow the negotiation steps discussed by Buppert (2018) by prioritizing the terms, explaining them to the prospective employer, and highlighting my possible future input that would justify these expectations. In communicating with the prospective employer, I would ask questions about the benefits that are typically offered to people in similar positions to see if the offer matches those (Buppert, 2018). If there are any disagreements on the salary and benefits, I will engage in open dialogue with the prospective employer so that we could arrive at a middle ground. I believe that this plan would help me to negotiate fair compensation and perks while also supporting the development of a positive relationship with my employer.
Conclusion
Overall, the paper highlighted the important aspects of my personal philosophy of practice and related them to ethical standards applicable to nursing. Formulating this philosophy has helped me to better understand my professional values and examine how they could be translated into future practice. In my future employment, I will seek to align these values and principles to those of the organization, thus developing my philosophy further. In negotiating salary and benefits, I would apply similar principles of transparency, justice, and trust, which should help me to ensure fair contract conditions.
References
Buppert, C. (2018). Nurse practitioner’s business practice and legal guide (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Stanley, J. M (Ed.) (2011). Advanced practice nursing: Emphasizing common roles (3rd ed.). F. A. Davis Company.