Nursing Philosophical Statement, Essay Example

Introduction

My present belief and values regarding nursing as a profession pertain to nursing being a skill or art of caring for people who become ill. Today, when health care in many developed nations have evolved into a business it is difficult to still define nursing and the profession as a skill or art of caring for people who become ill. While professionals would like to demonstrate these skills and arts they must be performed within the boundaries of whether the patient/client has the required insurance coverage for this care. It is sad to see the poor in America denied health care because they are uninsured. This attitude thwarts my philosophy of nursing care because they do not coincide with my values of caring. Therefore, I believe that professional nursing care must be extended to everyone irrespective of race, ethnicity, social background, gender and insurance coverage because it is the responsibility of social service organizations to make health care accessible/affordable for everyone in the society.

 Comparison of personal beliefs and values to Clarkson College’s philosophy and organizing framework of quality and safety

Clarkson College’s philosophy and organizing framework of quality and safety  reflects  beliefs and values of the nursing faculty regarding concepts foundational to the philosophy of the nursing program, which embody  Nursing, Society, Client, Health, and Teaching/Learning. Concepts specifically, contained in the framework to facilitate execution of its philosophy include client?centered care, caring, teamwork and collaboration, safety, informatics, quality improvement, and professionalism.

Professionalism best aligns with my nursing philosophy. From reading the history of nursing my beliefs about the profession were created. It was impacting note that nursing was just a practice of treating injured soldiers in the beginning. It developed into a profession after Florence nightingale (1810- 1920) dedicated her life to serving humanity. She was nicknamed ‘the lady with the lamp’ because she could have been seen late at night when soldiers were asleep performing duties, which reflected caring for the sick. From these activities professionalism in nursing emerged, which forms the basis of my philosophy and also Clarkson College’s and organizing framework of quality and safety perspectives.

When I articulate the belief that professional nursing care must be extended to everyone irrespective of race, ethnicity, social background, gender and insurance coverage because it is the responsibility of social service organizations to make health care accessible/affordable for everyone in the society, it is executing the professionalism required for nursing to be consistent with Clarkson College’s organizing framework of quality and safety philosophy. What is quality and safety or what does it require? With reference to the lady with the lamp it is going beyond the call of duty to serve humanity. Interestingly, in that time there were no boundaries as to who could access health care and could not.

Paradigms of nursing did not exist whereby nurses were classified according to the skills they possessed. Today with intense modernization and social changes it is my belief that we as nursing professionals are more equipped to serve a wider society as our training prepares us to function at a much higher level. Therefore, changes must be forged through advocacy to ensure that the empathy needed for caring be retained above whether a patient/ client can pay for   nursing care or not.