The Philosophy of Nursing

Definition of Nursing 

Contrary to general belief, nursing is more than just administering medicines and cataplasms to ailing patients. A nurse links the doctor and the hospital to the patient. Impliedly, the nurses spend more time with the patients than the other hospital staff does. According to Nightingale (1992), nursing has the following rules. First and foremost, a nurse needs to ensure that the ventilation in a patient's room is perfectly suitable to them. Secondly, the health of the houses must be maintained to quicken a patients healing process. That, again, is a rule and a duty of a nurse. 

Thirdly, managing quietness in the patients' room is a duty of a nurse. The nurse leads to distractions and sleeplessness among patients. Fourthly, it is the rule of nursing to ensure that a patient eats food. Food must be balanced and specified for the different patients in a hospital. Fifthly, it is the rule of nursing to ensure that the beddings used by a patient are clean and changed after a while. Their changing improves the sanitation around a patient, motivating them to get better. Lastly, it is a rule that a nurse takes care of the cleanliness standards in a patient's environment. The cleanliness includes both general and personal cleanliness which both mainly contribute to a patient's wellbeing (Nightingale, 1992). 

Nurses are of different types. The following are some of the various types of nurses. The first class is the registered nurse. They help doctors in hospitals. Their work approach is diverse as they perform more tasks than the other types of nurses would do in a hospital. The second type is licensed, practical nurse. An LPN performs specific functions in a healthcare setting under a doctor on an RN. The third class is the travel nurse. Eponymous to their name, travel nurses work in different locations and are often changed and transferred to other areas across the globe. This type of nursing works best for those who are fans of traveling and adapting to changes (Brown & Dolan, 2016). 

Primary Goal of Nursing 

The primary purpose of nursing is to improve the quality of life of a patient. The nurse may work towards achieving the target in the following ways; administration of medicines, provision of professional care, and provision of conditions that lead to the holistic wellbeing of a patient (Loan et al. 2017). The administration of medicines is the most known of the duties a nurse is expected to perform on the patients. Most of the people think that it is the only work of a nurse in a hospital. The administration of medicines to the ailing patients contributes to the primary goal of nursing. When the prescription and dosages of the drug are followed to the letter by the patient, the nurse fulfills their purpose of improving the patients' quality life (Thomas, 2011). 

Nurses are sometimes confused between offering adequate care to the patients and being sympathetic and breaching their professional stands. For example, a patient may state that food is causing him or her to feel nauseous and therefore requests to skip a meal. The fact that the patient is nauseated after eating the food may be blamed on the nurse. On the other hand, the nurse is supposed to ensure that the patient has enough food and does not skip a meal. This scenario may lead to a nurse's confusion on empathy and take care of the patients. Thus, a nurse needs to practice professionalism when they are providing adequate care to the patients (Dehghani, Salsali & Cheraghi, 2015). 

There are certain conditions, apart from medicines and healthy food that contribute to the general well-being of a patient. Such conditions are the reduction of noise, proper ventilation of rooms, and cleanliness. Less noise in the healthcare settings is paramount to the excellent performance of the patient regarding health. Ventilation in the rooms has to be done to ensure that the patient has right conditions that make them feel better. Personal and general cleanliness are fundamental to the healthiness of the patients. Furthermore, sanitation prevents infection and reinfection of the patients with bacteria. The provision of favorable conditions contributes to the primary goal of nursing (Hanson et al. 2016). 

Critical values embedded in philosophy of nursing and their reason of importance 

Philosophy of nursing is usually value-based, and each value has a relevance to the practice of nursing. The first value embedded in nursing philosophy is individualization of nursing care for each patient. The individualization of patients means a nurse in a healthcare setting treats every patient separately from the others. In any given hospital, patients have different conditions that demand different types and degrees of care by the nursing professionals. The individualized treatment helps a nurse concentrate to every need of a patient, however, minute it may be. Additionally, the individualization should conform to the cultures of the patients being attended. Individualization is essential especially in offering attentive care to the patients (Risman, Erickson & Diefendorff, 2016). 

The second value is collaboration. Nurses have to collaborate with various parties to provide maximum care for their patients. Some of the individuals are the patients' family members, doctors, and their fellow nurses. The holistic collaboration is paramount to the health of the patients. The oneness leads to connected support to help the patient. The unity also helps the patients develop a positive attitude towards the healthcare efforts put in place. In the long run, the patients get better. Collaboration is essential to all the nurses since it is one of the most important bases of nursing care (McEwen & Wills, 2017). 

The third value is upholding of ethical principles to provide adequate care to the patients. Ethics are the virtues and guidelines that introduce a direction to nursing care. The policies are inclusive. They include the patients as well as the nurses. For the effectiveness of ethics as a value in nursing philosophy, the values have to be universal and acceptable to the nurses all over the world. The acceptance by nurses motivates their applicability to the patients. Ethics are imperative to nursing practices as they offer a platform of consolidation of the patients' preferences of care and the nurses' ability to provide them with their preferred care (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen & Korhonen, 2015). 

Nursing as an Art or a Science 

Nursing could be described as both an art and a science. As an art, according to Lassetter & Horowitz (2017), nursing is more than just knowing, it also entails applying the knowledge to produce fruits which include the provision of better care for the patients. Addedly, the experience of the prescriptions of drugs would not be enough, practicing them on the patients would be. Unlike nursing as a science, the art of nursing comes even before the individual enters into the nursing profession. Solely, the art of nursing relies on the personal drive that leads one into nursing. The nursing profession is usually relational. The nursing practitioners have to have interpersonal skills that enable them to consider the needs of a patient (Lassetter & Horowitz, 2017). 

Nursing as science, according to Masterson & Robb (2016), is more inclined to the defined principles and ways of doing things that universally define the nurses across the world. For instance, each nurse must have cognizance and understanding of the nursing care plan that is patient-centered. The NCP helps them efficiently concentrate on the wellbeing of the patients when dealing with them. Nurses also need to comprehend the diseases regarding their forms, mechanisms, medications, management, and the possible effects of the maladies on the patients. Moreover, nurses need to be conversant with recent procedures, practices, and technologies involved in diagnostics (Masterson & Robb, 2016). 

In my opinion, nursing could be described as both an art and a science. The main reason basing my opinion is that there has to be the interaction of nursing as an art and a science for the efficient workability of patient care. Additionally, the knowledge of the nursing care plan is not enough for a nurse to efficiently perform their work, there has to be the implementation of the patient-centered nursing care plan. Therefore, nursing has to entail both sides of being art as well as a science for it to be worthwhile. Aspiring and already working nurses should consider the art and science of nursing before they embark on their career. 

How Philosophy Guides Nursing Practice 

Every nurse in the nursing career believes and thinks in a certain way that they believe is true concerning their practice in their noble profession. The philosophy of nursing, therefore, hugely guides nursing practice. The nursing philosophy results from the interaction of the practitioners with the patients, their communication with other parties such as the patients' families, and the knowledge learned from the classrooms (Dahnke & Dreher, 2015). The following are some of how the philosophy of nursing guides nursing practice. 

Philosophy guides nursing practice by providing more insight into the definition of nursing and what it is. The personal view of nursing begins by giving the own description of what nursing is all about, according to the individual nurse. The definition affects what a nurse does to a patient since they have already limited their definition of nursing. Secondly, a nurse gives a story of how their beliefs affect the nursing practice (Takase, Teraoka & Kousuke, 2014). For example, Christopher Myles is a registered nurse. He has an opinion that every patient should be on the feeding timetable. For Christopher, it does not matter whether a patient wants to eat or not, provided its meal time, they have to be eating. The philosophy guides his practice by upholding his level of patient care. Christopher's belief also improves his relationships with the patients and other parties that are working together with him to ensure the patients have faster recovery processes. 

Philosophy, especially personal philosophy of nursing, provides for the expectations of nurses in their quest for changing the society. The expectations of nurses lead to their motivation to working exceptionally smart in their work. Through the motivation to work an extra mile, the nurses have their philosophies affecting their nursing practices positively. Personal nursing philosophies outline the skills and methods that a nurse requires to efficiently handle the patients and improve their wellbeing (Keating, 2014). 

Relationship between philosophy of nursing and nursing standards and code of ethics outlined in nursing regulatory bodies 

The view of nursing that applies to all nurses across the world has a relationship with the set nursing standards and the ethical guidelines put across to guide the nursing practice. The philosophies that nurses set for themselves have to be in line with the managerial objectives of the healthcare institutions. For instance, if the organizational goals target to provide technologically-inclusive care, the nurses' philosophies have to contain their strategies to become conversant with technology for example in diagnostics. The philosophy of nursing stipulates the desirable qualities a nurse should possess. Some of them are professionalism, diligence, accountability, honesty and hard work. The conditions are by the set nursing standards. Moreover, since nursing is a profession, nursing philosophy lays down the rules that are expected of a professional nurse. That links nursing standards to the philosophy (Masters, 2015). 

Philosophy in nursing is also related to the ethical guidelines laid down by regulatory bodies in nursing. Nursing is, in a significant way, driven by ethics. Nursing ethics target beneficence, non-maleficence and the observance of autonomy. Beneficence is the act of displaying generosity and being useful to others. For a nurse, beneficence is key to ensuring quality care is provided to the patients. Beneficence also shows passion and empathy o the suffering of others. The caring of patients based on beneficent feelings is part of philosophical aspects of nursing. All the same, the practice of beneficence should be limited to the patients' scenario to ensure the nurse sticks to professionalism (Burkhardt, Nathaniel & Walton, 2014). Non-maleficence is the act of avoiding harm or evil. Non-maleficence guides the ethics of nurses as it makes sure all the nursing practices are free from harm that would befall the patients. Autonomy is imperative to a patient's satisfaction and well-being in a healthcare institution. They should be left to do some things on their own. Nurses have to respect autonomy according to their ethical standards (Canadian Nurses Association, 2017). 

Relationship between philosophy of nursing and a particular theory in nursing 

Nursing philosophies have a link with the arguments of nursing. A theory in nursing is a developed framework that guides the nurses regarding how they should give care to the patients. The approaches could be generated from research as well as the nurses' observations in their practice. Addedly, nursing theories must have evidence to them which aids in the illustration of the arguments. An example of the nursing theory is "the Nightingale of Modern Nursing" developed by Virginia Henderson. Virginia, in her discussion, stressed on the importance of granting patients their independence to promote their healing after hospitalization. For a nurse to provide the necessary autonomy to the patients, he or she must be conversant with the individual needs of her patients (Nursing Theories, 2012). 

The relationship between Virginia Henderson's theory and nursing philosophy is that a particular nurse will integrate the opinion depending on the philosophy he or she has developed for use in their practice. Both the nursing philosophies and theories, therefore, impact on how a nurse approach their daily life at work (Nursing Theories, 2012). 

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