A philosophy is a critical way of thinking to guide actions and decisions
A philosophy is a critical way of thinking to guide actions and decisions. Personal philosophy of nursing helps to think the way a nurse thinks personally and their professional practice (Alpers, Jarell, & Wotring, 2013). According to Thompson (2017) personal philosophy of nursing is answer to why you want to be a nurse, what you think about being a nurse and how will you be a successful nurse. When I started nursing school, one of my professor introduced nursing as a noble profession. I want to be a nurse because the nursing profession is about being selfless, making a positive difference in the lives of patient and contributing to the society.
Nursing is a combination of art and science. For me, the art part of nursing is rooted in love and care for patients and their families. The science part is logical thinking and knowledge about every action nurses take to provide holistic care to patient. I believe in nursing practice, everyone is someone. The simplest way to address what I think being a nurse is caring for patients and their families, understanding their beliefs and values, promoting health and wellness.
The patterns of knowing discussed by White (1995) are empirical, esthetic, personal knowing, ethical and sociopolitical helps me to appreciate value of caring and commitment to my nursing profession. The nursing metaparadigm as discussed by Reed & Shearer (2018) includes four concepts: person, health, environment and nursing guides me to focus when providing care to my patients and provides comprehensive perspective to my philosophy. So, this is how I want to be a nurse by focusing on nursing metaparadigm and applying patterns of knowing into my daily practice. Each day in my nursing practice, I am learning new things which is expanding the dimensions of my nursing philosophy.
