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Nursing Philosophy
Grace McQueen
Delaware Technical Community College
NUR 300
Mrs. Tina Shukla
February 14, 2024
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Nursing Philosophy

I chose nursing as my profession because I have always had a strong desire to help people

no matter where they are in their lives. The beauty of nursing is that you see people at the lowest

and most difficult times of their lives and walk them through to the other side. The outcome may

not always be desired; however, the nurse is allowed to support and care for the family through

this process, which is an invaluable aspect of the profession. Throughout my career, I desire to

continue to grow and fulfill my professional role to the best of my ability. It has become clearer

throughout this course that there are some key aspects to attaining this. These aspects include

nursing theory, lifelong learning, personal wellness, conflict management, QSEN competencies,

and leadership skills.

Nursing Theory

My personal goal as a nurse is for my patients to regain and maintain a higher level of health

than how they came to me. It is not always practical to assume that a patient will leave better

than before they became ill, however, getting them to their highest potential health in their

current situation is the goal. It is important to maintain a safe holistic, and healing environment

for the patient. This not only includes the physical space in which they are being cared for but

also the relationship between the nurse and patient. “Florence Nightingale's philosophy and

teachings emphasize that the nurse must use her brain, heart and hands to create healing

environments to care for the patient's body, mind and spirit” (Riegel et al., 2021). This theory of

nursing correlates strongly with why I became a nurse in the first place. This theory is primarily

centered on maintaining and manipulating the environment to ensure healing for the patient.

Some inclusions in this are maintaining a comfortable temperature and keeping rooms well-

ventilated. Providing 24/7 care while a patient is ill. Assuring adequate nutritional intake and
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monitoring. Comfort measures involve bedding, lighting, and a quiet environment. Maintaining a

clean environment including the room, patient, and the provider caring for the patient. There

must be consistent monitoring and observation of the patient's condition. In addition, assuring

not only physical needs but also mental needs are met. Nightingale believed that the nurse's role

was to care for spiritual needs as well. In addition, health promotion and education are included.

It is my personal belief that nursing practice should center on the patient and their care which is

incorporated into this theory. For this reason, I chose this theory as the basis of my nursing

philosophy.

Lifelong Learning

The concept of lifelong learning is essential to nursing as you learn new things every day.

As we know, healthcare and evidence-based practice is changing constantly. This is something I

appreciate and love about this profession. My love of learning led me to choose to seek my

bachelor’s degree. Attaining a BSN is closely linked to better patient care and outcomes which is

the goal of care. Unfortunately, healthcare in its current state presents many difficulties with

continued learning as demands on the working professional are extremely high. Many nurses are

simply exhausted and drained from the day-to-day aspects of the job. Some find it difficult to go

to work let alone seek learning opportunities. I am new to the field; however, I plan to strive to

keep lifelong learning at the forefront. There is always more to be learned to improve the care

provided. It is important to remember that if it was your family member lying in that bed, you

would want their nurse to be functioning at their maximum potential. In addition to this, attaining

a bachelor’s degree opens many doors for the practicing nurse. More opportunities for higher

acuity patients may be more available depending on the facility, which is a fantastic learning

opportunity. Leadership opportunities become more accessible. Attaining my BSN is a stepping

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stone to my master’s degree in future years. My goal is to continue to learn every day and seek

out opportunities as they arise to further my knowledge and professional career to provide

continually improved quality holistic care.

Personal Wellness

The five main aspects of personal wellness include physical, spiritual, social, emotional,

and intellectual. “Synergy is defined as working together, combining efforts with others to

enhance an effect” (Bourgondien, 2015). These five aspects of wellness all must work together to

enhance the wellness of a person. For example, while it may be good to focus on physical fitness

for your health, if aspects such as emotional and social are neglected a person may lose

motivation to sustain their physical fitness. All aspects of wellness must work in tandem. As I

have spoken about previously, my personal goal is to assist patients to attain their highest quality

of life moving beyond the hospital. However, to attain this and incorporate it, I must first take

care of my wellness. I am a firm believer that over the long term, you cannot take care of others

if you cannot take care of yourself first.

Conflict Management

Many personality inventories exist that often assist people to better understand

themselves and others. I have found from taking the 16 personalities test that I am an ISFJ-T.

This type is described as the defender and highly values empathy, collaboration, and harmony in

their relationships. The ISFJ’s communication style takes a supportive role, they listen and are

sensitive to the needs of others to ensure smooth collaboration. These traits make this personality

type an asset to the interprofessional team as they are dependable, precise, and put in a strong

effort to make collaboration within the team effective. A few of my conflict management
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strategies are accommodating, compromising, and collaborating. These inventories allow for

awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of those involved which assists collaboration.

No one person is the same, but having some general awareness of how people think, and

approach conflict may be the golden ticket to finding a resolution. This is the first step in

resolving conflict. It is also important to understand the types of conflict resolution which

include “competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromise, and collaborating” (Alarcon, 2020).

These styles are in many ways exactly what the title suggests, competing seeks only what one

party desires at the expense of the other. Avoiding is ignoring conflict. Accommodating is when

one party concedes to the others' desires to prevent conflict. Compromise is what it says it is.

Collaborating is when all parties seek to find a solution, and everyone wins. Collaboration is

often most effective for the interprofessional team and workplace. Research suggests that

depending on the type of personality a person has, their conflict management style can be

predicted. Knowing this allows for a better understanding of one another.

I am not prone to conflict and will often avoid it. This results in more work being given

to me by coworkers etc. because I will just go along with it. Unfortunately, it got to the point

where these extra tasks, etc made it difficult for me to perform safe care for my patients. I

brought this to the attention of one of my coworkers who was the biggest offender. We were able

to have a great conversation and use more of a collaboration approach to determine that I would

help if I could, but I would let them know if I was unable to. This ended up being a very simple

solution to a building issue. I believe this is a prime example of how certain conflict management

strategies like accommodating and avoiding are not the solution but rather lead to built-up

conflict over time. Maintaining awareness of yourself and others assists in conflict management

which is pivotal to the interprofessional team producing quality patient care and outcomes.
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QSEN Competencies

The Quality Safety and Education for Nurses (QSEN) Competencies are “patient-

centered care, teamwork & collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety,

and informatics” (QSEN, n.d.). Each aspect of these competencies is important to the practicing

healthcare professional. A good understanding of each competency is the first step to the proper

application of them. The first is patient-centered care which focuses on the patient's needs and

desires. Providing a good base of patient education is necessary for the patient to be included in

their plan of care and make well-informed decisions. The second competency is teamwork and

collaboration. The heart of this competency is establishing an understanding that patient care is

delivered in many ways through various specialties. All areas are important in providing the

patient with the highest level of care and getting them to their highest quality of life, which

cannot be done without teamwork and collaboration across the specialties.

Evidence-based practice is the third competency. This requires continued learning

throughout a medical professional's career. They must stay up to date with their practice by

keeping up with new data, understanding it, and determining a way to apply it to their practice.

Keeping up with and applying evidence-based practice is essential to applying many other QSEN

competencies and ensuring excellent professional practice. Quality improvement is the fourth

competency which “involves the application of evidence-based information to evaluate patient

outcomes and to design, test and implement changes to the healthcare delivery model. These

changes strive to continually improve the quality of care” (Grand Canyon University, 2021). One

example of this is a root cause analysis following a sentinel event. This practice allows for the

identification of the cause of the event and possible ways to prevent something similar in the
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future. The implementation of quality improvement allows the team to learn and continue to

improve their practice with the support of the healthcare facility.

The fifth competency is safety, involving safety for both patients and healthcare

providers. Identifying potential safety risks and knowing how to address them is required. Many

new checks have been developed within our technology systems to assist this competency;

however, the healthcare provider must remain vigilant in all aspects of care to ensure safety for

them and their patients. Tying in with this is the informatics competency. “Healthcare informatics

refers to the utilization of technology and information to manage patient care, prevent medical

errors, enhance decision making and encourage collaborative communication” (Grand Canyon

University, 2021). Examples of such things are seen across healthcare nowadays, in our charting

systems like Cerner, Epic, etc. Pop-ups on medication stations for allergies and so on. It is

impossible to walk into a hospital and not see how prominent informatics is in everyday practice.

Leadership

There are various leadership opportunities in healthcare, while some are more formal

such as nurse manager, and charge nurse. Others are informal leaders who inspire those they

work with to achieve a goal. As a leader in any capacity, it is important to be aware of your

leadership style. I have noticed that I gravitate more toward a servant style. “Servant

leadership refers to leaders who influence and motivate others by building relationships and

developing the skills of individual team members” (Sadler, 2023). I strive to meet people where

they are and identify ways to help them learn and grow whenever possible. Leadership should be

adaptive as the dynamics of patient care change over time in the interprofessional team. Leaders

identify potential and develop it to perform to its highest capability. Leadership requires working

with and not over others, it should be supportive while setting clear boundaries. In healthcare
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now more than ever, there is a major call for the nursing profession to step into leadership roles.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (n.d.) “it tells nurses to head for

board rooms, legislatures, and research” Nurses are on the front lines of patient care and are in

the perfect position to identify processes that could be improved to better patient care. It is our

responsibility to be leaders and bring things up that could improve care. In doing so, I will

contribute to my goal of helping my patients regain and maintain a higher level of health than

how they came to me.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my nursing philosophy centers on a strong desire to help people regain the

highest quality of life possible after becoming ill. To attain this, I use Florence Nightingale's

theory that a nurse should use their knowledge, skills, and compassion to take care of a patient

holistically. Lifelong learning is important to achieve this goal as this component allows me to

continue to learn and grow in my profession to provide the best care I am capable of.

Maintaining personal wellness will allow me to continue to care for others over the long term.

Effective conflict management requires awareness of the communication and conflict

management styles of all involved. Effectiveness in this area is important to maintain a highly

functioning team to provide excellent care. The QSEN competencies of patient-centered care,

teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and

informatics are crucial in everyday practice as a nursing professional to provide good patient

outcomes. Lastly, there is a call for nurses in leadership. This can range from being a silent

leader on your unit inspiring your coworkers to a charge nurse, to a nurse manager, to being a

board member, and so on. There are many opportunities for nurses to step up and improve the

care provided to patients from the start of illness through recovery, discharge, and rehabilitation.
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References

Alarcon, E. (2020a, January 17). The intersection and impact of personality type and conflict
management style. Mediate.com. https://www.mediate.com/the-intersection-and-impact-of-
personality-type-and-conflict-management-style/

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (n.d.). Leadership.

https://www.aacnnursing.org/5b-tool-kit/themes/leadership

Bourgondien, D. V. (2015, September 21). Synergistic Approach to Health and Wellness Small
Changes Big Impact. Slideshare.
https://www.slideshare.net/DoloresVanBourgondie/synergistic-approach-to-health-and-
wellness-small-changes-big-impact
QSEN. (n.d.). QSEN Institutes Competencies. https://www.qsen.org/competencies
Riegel, F., Crossetti, M. D. G. O., Martini, J. G., & Nes, A. A. G. (2021). Florence Nightingale's
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enfermagem, 74(2), e20200139. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2020-0139

Sadler, F. (2023, May 9). 7 leadership styles in nursing - which is yours?. Relias.
https://www.relias.com/blog/7-leadership-styles-in-nursing

Sherwood, G., & Zomorodi, M. (2014). A new mindset for quality and safety: The QSEN
competencies redefine nurses’ roles in practice. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 41(1), 15-
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The Open RN. (2023, February 3). 10.7: Qsen- advocating for patient safety and Quality Care in
Nursing Education. Medicine LibreTexts.
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Understanding the Importance of QSEN Competencies. Grand Canyon University. (2021, March
1). https://www.gcu.edu/blog/medical-studies-sciences/understanding-importance-qsen-
competencies