FRAMING OF PHILOSOPHY, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

INTRODUCTION:-
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from
other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its
reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek philosophia",
which literally means "love of wisdom"

PHILOSOPHY:-
The statement of philosophy is defined as an explanation of the systems of beliefs that determine
how a mission or a purpose is to be achieved. An organization’s philosophy states the beliefs,
concepts and principles of an organization.

NURSING SERVICE PHILOSOPHY:-

The nursing service philosophy is a statement of beliefs that flows from and is congruent with
the institution's philosophy. The belief system of the nursing philosophy should reflect the
nursing division member's ideas and ideals for nursing and should be endorsed by others.

COMPONENTS OF NURSING SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

1. NURSING/NURSING PRACTICE:-
Nursing is a health care service mandated by society;
the practice of nursing stems from the beliefs and ideals of the nursing service department.

In the first area, nursing theory, the task for the nurse manager is to decide whether and how to
incorporate theory. Three different methods may be considered.

 One method is to use an eclectic approach, selecting ideas and constructs from various
nursing theories and incorporating these into the philosophy.
 A second method is to use one theory throughout the philosophy.
 A third approach is to adopt a theory, then attach the entire document describing the
theory to the philosophy and refer to the theory at appropriate places in the philosophy.

A second set of values related to nursing/nursing practice center around practice, education and
research.
  Values specific to education are essential content for most departments of nursing. The
beliefs may focus on the need for continuing education off staff members. The third value
related to the concept of nursing practice is research and this include the department's
commitment toapplying research findings or supporting others in their research efforts.
The beliefs held about the areas of impact of administration will influence the formation
of philosophy. The last content area related to nursing/nursing practice is nursing 's role
in over all organization.

2. PATIENT/CLIENT
The patient is the main reason for the institution's existence, examine patient's
rights. Beliefs conceming patient's rights will be influenced in part by institutional policies and
practices.

3.NURSES:-
Nurses are essential in the day-to-day operations of the hospital organization. They
are the providers of nursing acts which result in quality, care. To keep the organization
functioning smoothly it is necessary to address values related to and beliefs about nurses. These
values and beliefs center around nurses rights, advancement criteria and responsibilities to other,
health professionals, as well as professional organizations.

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING EDUCATION

"Philosophy of nursing education is the written statement of the believes, values, attitudes and
ideas which the faculty as a group agreed upon in relation to the nursing educational programme
such as health, disease, nursing, nurse, nursing profession, education, learner, society, patient,
nursing education and preparation of nurses."

Philosophy of nursing education is a perfect combination of nursing and philosophy of

education, more precisely, philosophy of nursing and philosophy of education is the application
of the fundamental belief of nursing and education in the field of nursing.

In the philosophy of education, importance is given to the students. The objectives formulated
with a philosophical basis of education focus on the student life and the all round development.

FACTORS INFLUENCING PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING EDUCATION

Beliefs and values of faculty members regarding god, man, life, health, disease, nursing etc

 The philosophical values and beliefs of the institution

 The environment where the education takes place
 The student and activities
 Health needs of the society
  The culture and background of the people
 Developments in nursing, medicine and allied fields
 Philosophy of nursing service administration
 Philosophy of nursing service administration
 The goals and objectives of the health care delivery system
 The disease pattern, the health awareness and health facilities available
 The available resources in terms of man, money and materials

Philosophy is a statement encompassing ontologic claims about the phenomena of central

interest to a discipline, epistemic claims about how the phenomena came to be known, and what
members of the discipline value.

There are three general philosophies of personnel management.

The first is based on organizational theory, the second on industrial engineering, and the third on
behavioural science.

1. The organizational theorist believes that

 Human needs are either so irrational or so varied and adjustable to specific situations that
the major function of personnel management is to be pragmatic as the occasion demands.
 If the jobs are organized in a proper manner, he reasons, the result will be most efficient
job structure, and the most favourable job attitudes will follow as a matter of course.

2. The industrial engineer believes that

 The man is mechanistically oriented and economically motivated and his needs are best
met by attuning the individual to the most efficient work process.
 The goal of personnel management therefore should be to concoct the most appropriate
incentive system and to design the specific working conditions in a way that facilitates
the most efficient use of the human machine.
 By structuring jobs in a manner that leads to the most efficient operation, the engineer
believes that he can obtain the optimal organization of work and the proper work
attitudes.

3. The behavioural scientist believes that

 The behavioural scientist focuses on group sentiments, attitudes of individual employees,

and the organizations' social and psychological climate.
 Personnel management generally emphasizes some form of human relations education, in
the hope of instilling healthy employee attitudes and an organizational attitudes and an
organizational climate which he considers to be felicitous to human values. He believes
that proper attitudes will lead to efficient job and organizational structure.
Philosophy of staffing in nursing
 Nurse administrators of a hospital nursing department should adopt the following staffing
philosophy.
 Nurse administrators believe that it is possible to match employees' knowledge and skills
to patient care needs in a manner that optimizes job satisfaction and care quality.
 Nurse administrators believe that the technical and humanistic care needs of critically ill
patients are so complex that all aspects of that care should be provided by professional
nurses
 Nurse administrators believe that the health teaching and rehabilitation needs of
chronically ill patients are so complex that direct care for chronically ill patients should
be provided by professional and technical nurse.
 Nurse administrators believe that patient assessment, work quantification and job analysis
should be used to determine the number of personnel in each category to be assigned to
care for patients of each type such as coronary care, renal failure, chronic arthritis,
paraplegia, cancer etc)
 Nurse administrators believe that a master staffing plan and policies to implement the
plan in all units should be developed centrally by the nursing heads and staff of the
hospital.
 Nurse administrators believe the staffing plan details such as shift- start time, number of
staffs assigned on holidays, and number of employees assigned to each shift can be
modified to accommodate the units' workload and workflow.

Objectives of staffing in nursing

 Provide an all professional nurse staff in critical care units, operating rooms, labour and
emergency room
 Provide sufficient staff to permit a 1:1 nurse- patient ratio for each shift in every critical
care unit
 Staff the general medical, surgical, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatric and psychiatric
units to achieve a 2:1 professional- practical nurse ratio.
 Provide sufficient nursing staff in general, medical, surgical, obstetrics and gynaecology,
paediatric and psychiatric units to permit a 1:5 nurse patient ratio on a day and afternoon
shifts and 1:10 nurse- patient ratio on night shift.
 Involve the heads of the nursing staffs and all nursing personnel in designing the
department's overall staffing program.
 Design a staffing plan that specifies how many nursing personnel in each classification
will be assigned to each nursing unit for each shift and how vacation and holiday time
will be requested and scheduled.
  Hold each head nurse responsible for translating the department's master staffing plan to
sequential eight weeks time schedules for personnel assigned to her/his unit.
 Post time schedules for all personnel at least eight weeks in advance.
 Empower the head nurse to adjust work schedules for unit nursing personnel to remedy
any staff excess or deficiency caused by census fluctuation or employee absence.
 Inform each nursing employee that requests for specific vacation or holiday time will be
honored within the limits imposed by patient care and labour contract requirements.
 Reward employees for long term service by granting individuals special time requests on
the basis of seniority.

PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT
Cost effectiveness

In management or administration of any enterprises for organization, the quality,

quantity. timing and cost of the necessary to reach the objective of the enterprises are interrelated
factor which must be given constant attention.

Execution and control of work plan:

One of the greatest possible contributors to wastage of our precious

recourses, whether at the local or national level, is the failure of those at any level of
administration, and at all stages in the management of the activity, to base all decision on
verifiable facts.

Delegation of responsibility and authority:

The delegation of responsibility and authority is an

important aspect of successful administration, to place the responsibility for decision at the
lowest possible organizational level in order to attain decision as speedily as possible.

Human relation and good morale:

Since the function of administration is to attain an established

objective through the management of people, administration if deeply concerned with human
relation. Good morale of the staff is essential to the success of any organization.

Effective communication:

Effective communication are essential for all aspect of effective

administration staff must be adequately and correctly informed about plan, methods, schedules,
problems events and progress.

Flexibility:
 Administrators must be completely flexible to meet the changing needs of the situation.

OBJECTIVES OF MANAGEMENT
 Objectives are the ends toward which activity is aimed-they are the end results to ward
which activity is aimed.
 "Objectives are goals, aims or purposes that organizations wish over varying periods of
time" McFarland
 "A managerial objective is the intended goal that prescribes definite scope and suggests
direction to the planning efforts of a manger"-Terry and Franklin

GUIDELINES FOR OBJECTIVE SETTING

Objectives

 Must be clearly specified

 Must be set taking into account the various factors affecting their achievement
 Should he consistent with organizational mission
 Should be rational and realistic rather than idealistic
 Should be achievable but must provide challenge to those responsible for achievement
 Should start with "to" and be followed by an action verb
 Should be consistent over the period of time
 Should be periodically reviewed
 Should have hierarchy

Organizational objectives

 Should have social sanction

 An organization may have multiple objectives
 Organizational objectives can be changed

NATURE OF OBJECTIVES
 Each organization or group of individuals have some objectives
 Objectives may be broad or they be specifically mentioned
 Objectives may be clearly defined
 Objectives have hierarchy.
 Organizational objectives have social sanction, that is, they are created within the social
norms.
 An organization may have multiple objectives.
 Organizational objectives can be changed
FUNCTIONS OF OBJECTIVES

 To define an organization
 To provide directions for decision making
 To set standards of performance
 To provide a basis for decentralization
 Imegrate organization, group and individual

AIMS & OBJECTIVES-PURPOSES

If an educational programme is to be planned and if efforts for continued improvement are to be

made, it is very necessary to have some conception of the goals that are being aimed at. These
educational objectives become the criteria by which material are selected, content is outlined,
instructional procedures are developed and tests and examinations are prepared.

The principal benefit of defining aims and objectives goals, learning outcomes, call then what
you will is the provision of guidelines and a common understanding by course providers
(lecturers/teachers) for course takers and 'users' (students & employers) of what is to be
achieved. the nature of the task at hand. Aims and objectives provide students with a guideline of
their teachers' expectations and also provide an idea of the standards demanded of them.

Writing aims and objectives is not an exact science. The idea is not to distil the outcomes of
higher education into a list of competencies or lowest common denominators. Studying at
university cannot, and should not, be prescribed to the last detail. However, when designing our
courses (programmes/modules) we must have had a set of expectations and standards in mind.
Writing aims and objectives simply makes these expectations and standards explicit. A
cautionary note, however beware making claims and demands that cannot be substantiated. For
example, a clain that students will gain a range of transferable skills may look good on paper, but
it needs to be happening on the ground as well,

Allan provides a useful discussion of the 'definition of educational intent, in which she
distinguishes between the meanings of objectives and learning outcomes. Given that much of the
current university documentation refers to aims and objectives, I have chosen to use these terms
and define them to suit the purposes of course and module design & development. What follows
therefore, are some guidelines and advice on the accepted approaches to writing aims and
objectives

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES-DISTINCTION

Aims are broad and general statements of educational intent, and should inform students of the
overall purpose of a programme or module They are often written in provider (lecturer/tutor)
rather than receiver (student) terms Objectives, on the other hand, are more focused and indicate
what students should be able to do at the end (as an outcome) of the module or programme. They
may refer to subject specific concepts and skills, or more general (transferable/ generic)
attributes and abilities. Whatever, they should be written in student rather than lecturer terms.
They are characterized by being:

Specific: detail about particular aspects of expectations

Meaningful: in language that is understandable to teachers & students

Appropriate: "fit for purpose suit learners and satisfy standards

Realistic; given time constraints, resources etc.

T estable: some measure of progress/achievement of them can be made

AIMS
The aims express the subject provider's brood purposes in presenting each program of study in
the subject. These aims address the question 'why is the education provided?"

The aims are commonly expressed in terms of the sorts of abilities and attitudes the stakeholders
in higher education for example students, academics, employers, sponsor (including
Government), professional bodies can expect of the student who successfully completes the
specified program of education.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives set out the intended student learning experiences and student achievements that
demonstrate, successful completion of a program of study. A statement of objectives should
communicate specific intentions for the student learning experience and learning outcomes

Intended student learning experiences and achievements are normally expressed in terms of the
expected learning outcomes of the academic program and relate to the acquisition of knowledge,
the development of understanding and other general intellectual abilities, the development of
conceptual, intellectual and subject-specific skills, and the development of generic or
transferable skills, or the development of values, of motivation or attitudes to learning

Writing aims & objectives

Aims and objectives should encompass the whole student experience and the progression of
demand within the subject, and could usefully recognize the three areas or 'domains' of
objectives (after Bloom)

Cognitive: to do with comprehending knowledge and information

enable students to identify the principal types of igneous rocks and explain how they have
formed
Affective: to do with attitudes, approaches and values

develop ability to, and responsibility for, critically assessing own work and that of others
pychomotor: to do with (physical) skills use a petrological microscope, carry out simple optical
tests and measurements

Within each of these aspects, a progression or hierarchy of demand and expectation on the
student can be defined. Progression within the attitudinal (affective) area may be exemplified by.
say, a change in a history student from realizing the need for a critical approach to the
assessment of sources of evidence to habitually exhibiting that attitude; or for a medical student
knowing what is good practice in terms of bedside manner to exhibiting that behavior as a matter
of course. In terms of skills (psychomotor) this may be seen as a change from the ability to use
an instrument or piece of equipment given a set of detailed instructions to selection and 'expert
use of equipment in a novel, problem-solving, situation.

More importantly, it is useful to consider the progression of intellectual demand on students both
within a level and across levels within a program. Recall, perhaps without meaning or
significance, of information would be seen as the lowest demand, whilst the ability to judge,
compare and discriminate (evaluate) would be seen as the most demanding. A hierarchy of
intellectual demand is described below, starting at the lowest expectation. Each level on the
progression is defined (briefly and in more detail) and words that are useful to write associated
objectives are also provided.

Some colleagues regard this classification as incomplete as some of their planned outcomes -
creativity, for instance are not immediately apparent. However, the Categories of Transferable
Personal Skills that resulted from the Sheffield project included, amongst others, the following
descriptors under the heading of 'Creative’:

 formulating hypotheses
 extrapolating from the known to the unknown
 working with analogues and parallels
 use of metaphors and analogies
 building on others ideas

many of which are included within the definitions of the higher order skills on the Bloom
taxonomy. My approach is to use the taxonomy for the help it can provide, rather than be limited
by it is a framework not a cage

Useful terms to guide writing

Knowledge Recalls from prior experience

Aims and objectives are always linked, but often confused. They are, however, quite distinct:
 Aims as the changes you hope to achieve as a result of your work
 Objectives at the activities you undertake and the services you offer to bring these
changes about.
CONCLUSION
Philosophy and objectives act as a basis for any organization. So an administrator has to be
vigilant while formulating these.
REFERENCES:
1. Basavanthappa BT. Nursing Administration, Ist edition . New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers; 2000

2. Wehrich H. Koontz H. Management A global perspective. 11th edn. New Delhi: Tata
McGraw- Hill Publishing company ltd:2005

3. Marquis BL.Huston CJ. Leadership and Management Functions in Nursing- Theory and
application. 5th edn. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2006

4. Ward MJ, Price SA Issues in nursing administration. St.Louis: Mosby: 1991.

5. Marquis B.L. Hutson C.J. Leadership roles and management functions in nursing-Theory and
application. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2006.

6. Douglass L. M. The effective nurse- leader and manager. 5th ed. Mosby: St. Louis: 1996.

7. Morrison M. Professional skills for leadership. Mosby: US; 1993.

8. Ellis JR. Hartley C L. Managing and Co-ordination nursing care. 3rd ed. Lippincott:
Philadelphia, 1995.

9. Basvanthappe BT. Nursing administration. New Delhi: Jaypee brothers, 2000.

10. Anthony, Mary K., Theresa, Hertz, Judith Factors Influencing Outcomes After Delegation to
Unlicensed Assistive Personnel. JONA. 30(10):474-481, October 2000,

11. Cheryl L. Plasters, Seagull FJ, Xiao Y. Coordination challenges in operating-room

management: an in-depth field study. Amiaannu symp proc, 2003.
 INDIAN NURSING COUNCIL PHILOSOPHY, AIMS AND
OBJECTIVES
PHILOSOPHY:
National Health Policy(NHP) 2002 emphasizes the need to prepare nurses to function in super-
speciality areas who are required in tertiary care institutions, entrusting some limited public
health functions to nurses after providing adequate training, and increase the ratio of degree
holding vis a vis diploma holding nurses.

It is observed that there is an acute shortage of nursing faculty in under graduate and post
gradunte nursing programme in India.

Indian Nursing Council believes that:

 Post Graduate programme is essential to prepare nurses to improve the quality of nursing
education and practice in India..
 Post graduate programme in nursing builds upon and extends competence acquired at the
graduate levels, emphasizes application of relevant theories into nursing practice,
education, administration and development of research skills.
 The programme prepares nurses for leadership position in nursing and health fields who
can function as nurse specialists, consultants, educators, administrators and researchers in
a wide variety of professional settings in meeting the National priorities and the changing
needs of the society.
 This programme provides the basis for the post masteral programme in nursing. Further
the programme encourages accountability and commitment to life long learning which
fosters improvement of quality care.

AIMS:
The aim of the postgraduate program in nürsing is to prepare graduates to assume responsibilities
as nurse specialists, consultants, educators, administrators in a wide variety of professional
settings.

OBJECTIVES
On Completion of the two year M.Sc Nursing programme, the graduate will be able to:-

 Utilize apply the concepts, theories and principles of nursing science

 Demonstrate advance competence in practice of nursing
 Practice as a nurse specialist,
 Demonstrate Ieadership qualities and function effectively as nurse educator and manager.
 Demonstrate skill in conducting nursing research, interpreting and utilizing the findings
from health related research.
 Demonstrate the ability to plan and effect change in nursing practice and in the health
care delivery system.
 Establish collaborative relationship with members of other disciplines
 Demonstrate interest in continued leaming for personal and professional advancement