Personal Worldview and Nursing Practice Sample Paper

Introduction

Nurses have a duty and the responsibility to provide quality care to patients in a safe, secure, and confidential way. As they dispense their duties, nurses have to contend with their own worldviews and perception on culture, religion and even spiritual factors that have immense influence on nursing practice. In simple terms, worldview is a set of assumptions, beliefs, and practices that have an influence on how a person perceives ‘something’ in a given context (Kikuchi, 2017). Concerning nurses, worldview provides nursing practitioners (NPs) with an ontological basis on which their beliefs are founded. In this essay, I describe my worldview, my nursing philosophy, and the nursing theory that I use in my nursing practice to attend to and provide interventions to patients.

Personal Worldview

My worldview of nursing is shaped by my assumptions, beliefs, cultural practices, religion, and spiritual elements. Just like patients have their own beliefs, cultural practices, and religion, so do nurses. Being a nurse, I am cognizant of the fact that these factors impact the quality of care I give to patients. For example, my religious beliefs and cultural background have an impact on how I perceive other people who may not share similar cultural practices and religious beliefs. Culture, beliefs, traditions, and religion define my relationship with patients. Besides, these factors distinctly shape my nursing experience and my interaction with patients at the facility. In a similar manner, patients do have their own sets of cultural practices, beliefs and religion founded on their cultures. As observed by Thorne (2020), these values, believes, religious standpoint, and culture are used by patients to give meaning to the experiences they go through in the care settings. Despite differences in culture, religion, and values, my worldview accords me the opportunity to understand others and to have a deep understanding of the mindset and the mentality of patients.

Nursing Theory That Reinforces Nursing Care

There are many nursing theories that are beneficial to nurses. However, each nurse must at least a specific nursing theory that works best for them considering factors such as their nursing worldview and nursing philosophy. For my case, Jean Watson’s Caring theory is the most ideal theory because it offers the best results for patients in terms of care, love, empathy, and the provision of quality services. Besides, this theory also promotes the well-being of nurses. It is a theory that believes that quality care for patients begins with taking care of the nurses first. I chose Jean Watson’s Caring theory because appeals to my nursing philosophies of easing the suffering of patients, quality healing, and promoting compassion and dignity. Most importantly, this theory contributes to the self-actualization of nurses (Steyl, 2019). On my side, the Jean Watson’s Caring Theory works well with my nursing philosophy as far as providing a high quality of healing is concerned. This theory helps me to turn my worldviews into positive synergies that are valuable to my patients/customers.

Nursing Theory

My nursing philosophy is that “My philosophy is that I have a professional responsibility to patients and the public to offer safe, holistic, patient-centered care founded on individualized care.” This is a statement that distinctively outlines my values, beliefs, motivation, and ethics that I use in dispensing my duties and responsibilities. This statement is critical to me because it helps me to put focus and emphasis on my behavior and relationship with patients. Through this statement, I continue to observe moral values, ethical standards, and professionalism when dealing with patients, an aspect that Green (2018) as essential in nursing practice. My nursing philosophy continually makes me to evaluate critical questions such as the value of nursing to me, my reason for becoming a nurse, my personal beliefs that impact nursing, the skills that are most critical to me in my profession, and the impact my profession has on my community and society. Asking myself these questions helps me to conduct myself professionally in a manner that goes beyond simply following the nursing rules and protocols.

My objective in nursing is to offer a holistic and patient-centered care to all patients and the community at large. Nursing is about people who need help with their health, an understanding of their needs physically, psychologically, and emotionally is the best way for a nurse to offer quality care (Hoeck & Delmar, 2017). I use my skills, education, and knowledge of technology to create nursing solutions/interventions that follow evidence-based methods. Besides, I use my clinical experience, skills, education, knowledge, and judgment to educate and empower communities to adopt positive activities that promote healthy living. Being a nurse, it is my duty and responsibility to promote healthy living in communities. Healthy lives mean that people can live full-lives and fulfill their dreams. Besides, healthy people ease the pressure of the healthcare systems and nurses. Most importantly, it is my responsibility to ensure that patients get the best quality care as long as they are in my hands.

Nursing Issue I Solved with Nursing Theory

One month ago, I was assigned to attend to a patient with Hispanic origin. The patient came in wailing that she did not want to be treated in a hospital. She was very agitated that her people had brought her to the hospital against her wishes. I managed to calm the patient after sometime and asked her why she detest hospitals. She revealed to me that she belonged to a Christian denomination that does not allow its followers to seek treatment from hospitals. She revealed to me that treatment in hospital violated her belief and faith in God as the only healer. I explained to her using Matthew 9:12 that states that “But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (New International Version Bible, 2001). Using this argument, the patient agreed to treatment. This example shows how I used my nursing worldview in solving a case successfully.

My Future practice Based on Nursing Philosophy

Using my nursing worldview, I understand my purpose and role in healthcare as a healthcare professional. In the future, I will use nursing philosophies and my worldview to help me increase more knowledge through education, practice, and research. A nursing worldview founded on skills and knowledge impact on the quality of healthcare. These factors set out a clear foundation of nursing practice by describing what nurses should do to enhance their service delivery. Additionally, the nursing theory helps me to understand how to deal with people from different backgrounds. Worldview provides nursing practitioners with an ontological foundation that shapes their beliefs and practices, including defining their relationship with others. Most importantly, the nursing theory helps me to effectively evaluate patients and create proper treatment plans based on their physical, emotional, and psychological situations.

Conclusion

Leveraging the different facets of nursing theories can help nurses to develop positive approaches of interacting with patients based on their worldviews. One way through which nurses can overcome any worldview biases is by creating a personal statement that reminds them of their objectives of becoming nurses and what they would want to achieve. The combination of nursing philosophies and nursing theories can have a long-lasting positive impact on nurses in terms of the delivery of quality services.

References

Green, C. (2018). A philosophical model of the nature of nursing. Nursing Research, 67(2), 93-98. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnr.0000000000000247

Hoeck, B., & Delmar, C. (2017). Theoretical development in the context of nursing-The hidden epistemology of nursing theory. Nursing Philosophy, 19(1), e12196. https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12196

New International Version Bible. (2001). Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick Mathews 9:12.

Kikuchi, J. (2017). Nursing Knowledge and the Problem of Worldviews. Retrieved 26 April 2021, from https://rn-journal.com/journal-of-nursing/nursing-paradigms-nursing-theories

Steyl, S. (2019). The Virtue of Care. Hypatia, 34(3), 507-526. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12481

Thorne, S. (2020). Rethinking Carper’s personal knowing for 21st century nursing. Nursing Philosophy, 21(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12307