Apply recommended elements of a philosophy statement.
Explain how your philosophy can accommodate your expanded awareness of practice issues as a DNP.
Explain how your philosophy reflects or supports advocacy of social change as a DNP.
Identify at least two middle range nursing theories and explain how they support your philosophy of nursing practice. Be specific and provide examples.
Explain how one or more interdisciplinary theories inform your philosophy of nursing practice. Be specific and provide examples. Philosophy of Nursing Essay Example
Philosophy of Nursing
A philosophy is a set of principles that offer guidance and influence. In nursing or any other profession, a philosophy outlines the beliefs, ethics and values of nurses, as well as the motivation for being in the profession. It outlines the perspective concerning ethics in patient care, practice and education. As a nursing, my philosophy of nursing is the provision of personalized care that identifies and meets the needs of patients and the community. In this case, I leverage my experience, skills, knowledge, commitment, conscience, confidence, competence and compassion in making the nursing care experience unique, purposeful and positive for every patient. I can only realize this philosophy through improving my nursing capabilities through continued education, experience and taking on more nursing responsibilities (Zerwekh & Garneau, 2021). This paper discusses how my philosophy of nursing fit into my DNP qualifications, supports advocacy for social change, is influenced by middle range nursing theories, and is informed by interdisciplinary theories.
Explain how your philosophy can accommodate your expanded awareness of practice issues as a DNP.
My philosophy of nursing is to provide personalized care that identifies and meets the needs of patients. This goes beyond the traditional care responsibilities to ensure that all efforts are compassionate and patient-centric. This also means that patients are involved in their care, and are empowered to have choices and control over the ways in which their care is planned and delivered. This philosophy accommodates my expanded awareness of practice issues as a DNP in three ways. Firstly, it helps to guide career development issues through identifying what nursing specialization I may be interested in and which care setting would offer the best opportunity to showcase my nursing capabilities. Secondly, it helps in keeping me motivated during professional challenges, such as high pressure patient situations and long shifts. At this time, recalling my philosophy of nursing and remembering why I am a nurse is important for keeping me motivated and focused while addressing the challenges. For instance, I can put the long work shifts into perspective by recalling that I am making a difference in the lives of patients. Thirdly, it helps to improve interactions with colleagues, patients, families and the community. The philosophy identifies my nursing related values so that I am able to approach interactions with other stakeholders with the objective of upholding the values. For example, I can demonstrate integrity by admitting to having made a mistake and fixing the mistake or at least making an effort to fix the mistake (Weiss, Tappen & Grimley, 2019).
Explain how your philosophy reflects or supports advocacy of social change as a DNP.
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My philosophy of nursing supports advocacy for social change as a DNP. In this case, the position as a DNP expands nursing role so that I am better positioned and empowered to promote a sense of hope and meaning, facilitate client choices, model empowering behavior, encourage increasing responsibilities, set clear expectations, and provide consistent affirmations. The philosophy indicates the intention to identify and meet the needs of patients while allowing them to be involved in care choices and make informed decisions. A key feature of this approach to nursing care delivery is the concept of change, such as promoting the self determination of a patient to choose a safer environment, teaching teenage mothers parenting skills, and suggesting that a family adopts healthier communication patterns, all involving change (Finkelman, 2022).
Because my responsibility as a nurse is to accomplish health goals, and therefore promote change, I must be equipped with the skills to equip, lead and support social change. The DNP education program equips me with these skills so that I am able to understand the nature of change, how patients respond to change, and how I can effect change as a nurse to improve the community. In essence, as a DNP I would support advocacy of social change through taking advantage of the available opportunities, developing expertise, capitalizing on personal characteristics, and using my professional position (Finkelman, 2022).
Identify at least two middle range nursing theories and explain how they support your philosophy of nursing practice.
Two middle range nursing theories support my philosophy of nursing practice. Firstly, Dorothy Johnson’s Behavioral Systems Model that highlights the need for nursing intervention as an external regulatory force that acts to preserve the integration and organization of the behaviors of patients at an optimum level. Each individual has a behavioral system that is characterized by repetitive, purposeful and patterned ways of acting. This theory supports my philosophy of nursing practice by identifying each patient as a unique behavioral system, and that nursing care must be personalized for the patient to achieve the best care outcomes. Through nursing interventions, the behavioral system can be optimized to enhance health and prevent ill health. For instance, the theory can be applied to direct a nursing care plan in which a patient is first diagnosed, interventions developed then applied with the process ending with an evaluation to determine if the system is in balance (Butts & Rich, 2018).
Secondly, Nola Pender’s Health Promotion Model that highlights the unique personal experiences and characteristics of each individual, and this has an effect on their actions. This has important motivational significance as nurses can intervene by identifying the health promoting behaviors that an individual can apply to improve quality of life, enhance functional ability and improve health. This theory highlights the need for nurses, explaining that they play an important role in health promotion. This theory supports my philosophy of nursing practice by highlighting the need for advanced nurses who have better knowledge and understanding of the major determinants of health behaviors. With this understanding, nurses can recognize that individuals are multidimensional in nature as they interact with the environment so that target areas can be identified for increasing the level of wellbeing. For example, advising a patient who works in the radiation industry about the risks of developing cancer if there is no appropriate protection (Butts & Rich, 2018).
Explain how one or more interdisciplinary theories inform your philosophy of nursing practice.
Lewin’s Change Theory is an interdisciplinary theory that informs my philosophy of nursing practice. This theory helps in structuring change by presenting it as a three-step process. As a DNP, I would be actively involved in change. Through understanding and applying the theory I would be able to better manage the change by developing better questions to evaluate the change, identify key indicators to be monitored, identify data gaps, prioritize data collection, and provide a structure for analyzing and reporting data. In essence, understanding and applying the change theory is helpful in ensuring that change achieves the intended goals for as long as required (Vana & Tazbir, 2021).
Conclusion
One must acknowledge that a philosophy of nursing is a guide that outlines the beliefs, ethics and values of nurses, as well as the motivation for being in the profession. My personal philosophy of nursing is to provide compassionate and personalized care to patients. This philosophy accommodates my expanded awareness of DNP practice issues through: identifying nursing specialization of interest; remaining motivated even when facing professional challenges; and improving interactions with other stakeholders. In addition, my philosophy supports advocacy of social change as a DNP through promoting a sense of hope and meaning, facilitating client choices, modeling empowering behavior, encouraging increasing responsibilities, setting clear expectations, and providing consistent affirmations. Also, it allows for DNP practice to support advocacy of social change through taking advantage of the available opportunities, developing expertise, capitalizing on personal characteristics, and using my professional position. Besides that, Dorothy Johnson’s Behavioral Systems Model and Nola Pender’s Health Promotion Model support the philosophy. Furthermore, Lewin’s Change Theory informs my philosophy by structuring change efforts.
References
Butts, J., & Rich, K. (Eds.) (2018). Philosophies and Theories for Advanced Nursing Practice (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Finkelman, A. (2022). Professional Nursing Concepts: Competencies for Quality Leadership (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Vana, P. K., & Tazbir, J. (2021). Kelly Vana’s Nursing Leadership and Management (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Weiss, S. A., Tappen, R. M., & Grimley, K. (2019). Essentials of Nursing Leadership & Management (7th ed.). F. A. Davis Company.
Zerwekh, J., & Garneau, A. (2021). Nursing Today: Transition and Trends (10th ed.). Elsevier. Philosophy of Nursing Essay Example