Personal Philosophy and Reflection on Nursing

Trevor Curran

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

NUR 4140: Synthesis for Nursing Practice

Dr. Marcella Williams DNP, RN, CMSRN, CNE: Assistant Professor

April 1, 2023

“I pledge.”
 Personal Philosophy and Reflection on Nursing

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on my own personal nursing philosophy and how it

has impacted me through both my school and hospital experiences. I think that this is a valuable

exercise to partake in before I graduate. It allows me time to reflect on what has impacted me

and what I want to carry with me as I start my nursing career.

Definition of Nursing

Nursing, to me, is the ability to fix, heal, and comfort what is sick and broken through the

use of compassion, determination, and guidance. A nurse is an advocate for the patient and what

is right, a leader, a teammate, they are a teacher, a guide and coach, someone to listen, a body of

support, or a shoulder to cry on. A nurse is a job with many hats. A nurse cares for those who

cannot care for themselves; they see patients at their lowest points and are a part of every step of

the care journey. Nurses are the faces the patients and families will remember long after

discharge.

Bon Secours philosophy teaches the importance in holistic care, lifelong learning, and the

encouragement of future nurses to become complete and fully realized versions of themselves.

They do this to prepare their students to make excellence nurses who strive for excellent care.

They stress that it is the whole individual that we are concerned for, not just medical side. The

different roles that a nurse must play shows how much nurses focus on the holistic care of the

patient. The program and nursing in general encourage lifelong learning as the field is rapidly

growing and constantly changing.

Personal Philosophy

During our first semester, one of our big assignments was to write about our personal

nursing philosophy. I said that my philosophy was to provided fair, equal, and just treatment to
everyone and that each patient deserved their own patient centered care. Upon reflection of my

time spent in nursing school and countless hours in practicum, I can say that my philosophy has

not changed. I still strive to treat everyone with dignity, respect, fairness, and all patients deserve

personalized care and interactions. Over my nursing school career, I can say that this philosophy

has not changed. I have taken care of a variety of patients and am now seeing patients at their

sickest in the ICU. Even in this setting, I still want to make a connection with my patient and

their families. I feel that it makes their experience better overall, but it also helps to make the

workday fell less mundane.

I find it important to bring a balance in my work and interpersonal relationships. I am a

very hard and dedicated worker. I know that I can be very ‘type A’ and task oriented at times,

but I also have a fun side while at work. I like to interact and joke with patients or just have

discussions about their lives. The connection to the individual is one of the reasons I enjoy

nursing.

Values and Beliefs

The decision to go into the field of nursing was never my first choice if I was being

honest. Throughout my childhood and first degree, I remember telling my parents that I would

not be a nurse like my mom. I wanted to anything else because I heard the horror stories and

knew the long hours of work, the stress, and exhaustion. It’s ironic really; I tried for so long to

forge a path away from nursing but ended up about to graduate nursing school.

I do not think that my values and beliefs have changed much sense I began nursing

school. Actually, I do not think they have changed much since I began my first degree. Since I

started my higher education journey, my desire was to help people. Whether that meant in the

military, as a physician assistant, or by nurse, I knew that I wanted a role that let me do good for
this world. I attribute this desire to help and serve others to my parents and my upbringing. I was

raised in a Christian household and taught the value of being respectful, honest, dependable, and

trustworthy. I learned the value of hard work, discipline, professionalism, through Boy Scouts

and ROTC during college. Both of these extracurriculars challenged me in different ways at the

time, but I feel as though they made me a more rounded individual. It surprises me how many

lessons carry over into the field of nurse. Other values I still hold include the pursuit of

knowledge, humor, teamwork, and compassion. Each of these values have become an integral

part of who I am as a person and as a nurse.

My beliefs have only been strengthened by my time in the hospital and nursing school. I

believe that everyone deserves the right to dignity and respect. They are entitled to their own

belief system, creed, and opinions. People have a right to speak and to be heard. I have found this

especially important in my practicum experience. Many patients are re-learning how to live and

need opportunities to express their thoughts, fears, desires, or encouragement to speak up for

themselves. I believe that nurses are doing work that affects the lives of many and we have a

responsibility to show each person that they are seen, heard, and respected.

Nurse Patient Encounter

I wish that I could say my nurse patient encounter was a pleasant one, but I do not think

that I would be true to my philosophy in that writing. Instead, I will be writing about one of the

more difficult patients I have taken care of. This occurred early on during my third semester of

nursing school. I remember my instructor talking to me prior to the start of the shift about this

patient and how they have been treating staff and students alike. I knew that this patient was

rather difficult heading into the day. They were rude, demanding, vulgar, and honestly, quite

disgusting as a patient.
 I remember this patient was in the hospital for bilateral wounds to their lower extremities.

Parts of the shin and calf were exposed; muscle and ligament were visible in some areas. It was

quite a site. I thought it was interesting because the patient had no sense of hygiene when it came

to his legs. He would touch the wounds constantly and disturbed the bandages after I had just

completed wound care. He tried to argue with me about the wound care orders and how he did

not agree with them. To put it nicely, it was a very frustrating practicum shift.

I decided to talk about this patient in particular because I think that it demonstrates my

personal nursing philosophy the best. This was a difficult patient. I easily could have gone a

different route in my actions. I could have become short and defensive when interacting with this

patient, instead, I remained calm in my interactions with my patient. I listened to this patient’s

concerns and tried to provide answers or teaching where I could. For the concerns or questions, I

could not control, I tried to find out the answer. It was evident this patient was frustrated with the

situation and upset by what he had no control over. I wanted to make sure that I still provided

quality care, even with a difficult patient.

Being anything less than professional would have been a disservice for both this patient

and myself. Nothing would have been accomplished and it probably would have caused more

harm than good in the long run. This interaction is likely one of countless unpleasant encounters

that I will experience in my nursing career. Just as I did with this patient, I do not plan to let the

attitudes or actions of others influence my core values and beliefs of how I want to treat others.

Change Agent

My NUR 4140 practicum group’s project focuses on improving unit HCAHPS scores,

specifically around medication education, on the Med Surge Unit at St. Francis Medical Center.

We aim to raise the respective HCAPHS score by 10%, from 50% to 60%, by the end of 2023.
We believe that we can do this by creating medication flashcards to aid in the reinforcement and

retention of medication education. The cards we designed are similar to medication index cards

used by nursing students to study pharmacology, but in simpler terms. We want to use laminated

drug cards in every room for patients and nurses to use to aid in education. We believe that

providing a visual aid will not only aid/enhance education but provide medication education

opportunity outside of the traditional nurse-led sessions. I found this class to be very intuitive

because inn this course we take the “driver’s seat.” We gain experience in taking the initiative to

promote a positive change on our assigned unit. I think for me, it was important to see that

change agents can exist at any level of an organization so long as they can recognize where a

change needs to be made.

Benner’s Theory

Benner’s theory uses the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition and applies it to the field of

nursing. She states that all nurses will go through the five phases of skill acquisition (novice,

advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert) over time and with increased experience.

Her theory is broad and encompasses all spectrums of the nursing realm. One does not become

an expert nurse because they graduate nursing school, nor does an expert in wound care carry

that title for care of mental health patients.

If I were to grade myself as a whole nurse, I would say that I am in the advanced

beginner stage. I have the knowledge from schooling and some limited experience form work as

a patient care tech, but not much in the nurse role. I am proficient in the basic skills of nursing

from previous tech experience. I know the hygiene and ADL routine, how to transfer patients

properly, and how to follow an order. I would say that I am competent to proficient in my

communication skills. I have held various roles and positions that allowed me to speak to a
variety of individuals. By working as a patient care tech, I am comfortable interacting with

patients in a natural but professional manner. When it comes to the full scope of what a nurse

does, (the assessments, charting, time management, delegation, teaching, etc.), I am firmly an

advanced beginner. I am still learning the ways to chart; I still need guidance in recognizing

trends of care. I am making strides in my practice as I am not the same student I was when I

started the semester.

Action Plan

Beginning my first nursing job will be both an exciting and stressful time for me and my

family. Not only will I be starting on my own, off orientation, as a new nurse, but around the

same time, my wife and I will be welcoming our first child. We have already had numerous

discussions about what our life will look like in a few short months but also what our plan will

be.

I have learned that much of my self-care needs comes in the form of decompression. I

need to be able to unwind and relax after a long day or a long week. I many different outlets for

this. Firstly, I am very family oriented, I love to spend time with my parents, siblings, and in-

laws. Setting up time for visits, especially with our baby will be a great stress reliever for me. I

plan to get more involved with church as well. I currently attend service and a small group when

I am not working but want to be more involved and connected as it is a big part of our lives. I

also have a few hobbies that I enjoy. I like to go on walks or play with my two dogs, I like to

spend time outside in nature, I garden, I cook, explore new restaurants or wineries with my wife,

I like watch sports, play video games, and I am trying to get back into reading. Any of these

activities will help me decompress and promote good mental health.

 I do know that the self-care activities I listed above may not be enough, so I am planning

on journaling when I start my nursing assignment. I did journals and meditation as part of the

Self-care elective. I found both of these methods helpful, but I enjoyed journaling more. I also

have a therapist on standby if the stress and strain becomes too much.

As for my professional development, I have made my intentions clear that I want to train

in CV step down with the goal of ending up on CVICU. I plan to find a nurse to mentor me and

help guide me through the hurdles and challenges of being a new nurse. I have also made my

intentions clear to my future manager that I want to become CCRN certified as soon as I am

able. I have already talked to my current nursing educator about this goal and will discuss it more

after graduating.