Nursing Philosophy Paper Example

SECTION A

Describe your nursing philosophy

Nursing philosophy is the personal attitude towards life and the various realities that originate from every nurse's belief. The definition offers me the freedom to make use of my personal beliefs rather than depending on or accepting on what other people decide. I believe that for one to be a successful nurse, one should be caring and self-driven to continue to achieve and apply the nursing knowledge throughout once carer. My nursing philosophy intends to address various things that include, the environment, society, the recipients of the care and the relation between, person, society and the environment (Cribb, 2007). The interactions between that environment, society and the healthcare recipient relate to each other depending on the type of interaction and are also characterised by constant change or progress.

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During my childhood, my dream was to be a nurse. I recall dreaming of one time wearing the nurses white uniform and caps. However, with time I realised that my perspective towards the nursing profession had changed. I came to realise being a nurse was not just about wearing the white uniform but being that person who can make an impact in other people's lives. Therefore, I understood that nursing is all about the care and compassion offered with the appropriate technology to create an environment that supports healing. This care can be offered at any location by any person with the potential to show support and love to another person.

I perceive nursing as my way of giving back to the society. Despite thinking that nursing is all about obtaining skills and gaining the ability to offer medical care. I realised that there is far more of healing than medicine. The ability to show a person that you care involves providing interaction that provides a therapeutic ground to promote trust thus helping in the healing process. I live my nursing philosophy on a daily basis, I don't have to be on duty to provide nursing care instead I exemplify my belief in every instance of my life.

Explain how the nursing professional incorporates accountability, compassion, and professionalism

Compassion

Compassionate care is an essential quality among the care providers and is highly expected by the members of the or patients. Compassion is a crucial aspect of nursing care and one of the strengths of the nursing profession. According to a study in 2007, compassion involves having close contact with patients and viewing their situation to be more than a medical situation. Every nurse should have the capability to offer compassionate care in his or her health care practice(Cribb, 2007). Compassion and communication tend to be the key skills that the professional nurses need to provide confidential and competent care.

Professionalism

Professionalism is important in nursing to facilitate the achievement of a healthy working environment. It reflects on a desirable and achievable performance level against which the nurse's performance can be compared. Professionalism intends to ensure that the nurses maintain safe and the clinically acceptable nursing practices. Professionalism is highly essential in nursing since the professional mainly deal with the patient's dignity and their ability to be healed.

Accountability

Accountability is important in the nursing profession; the nurses should be responsible for their actions. Therefore, they should abide by the right standard when offering medication to the patient. Therefore every decision made in the healthcare setting should be highly scrutinised to ensure that meets the intended purpose well. The nurses tend to be held accountable for all wrong decisions they make.

SECTION B

I identify your leadership style

As a nurse leader, I will use the paternalistic leadership style. This style enables me to work as a role model figure to the rest of the workers, thus providing them with the sense of direction. The style will help me gain concern of the welling being of the rest of the workers and the patient thus creating a trustworthy atmosphere. The style also promotes teamwork in the working environment while the workers are committed to achieving the vision of the leader. This help to ensure that the workers have close contact thus creating a caring atmosphere since the workers are concerned about each other's welfare.

Who is a person that you consider a role model early in life?

A role model is an individual who portrays success or good behaviour, and his or her actions can be copied by others, mainly by the young generations. An individual's role model tends to have a tremendous impact on his career choices and opportunities. Role model suitability on an individual depends on the admirer's commonality with the role model. The role model should create a sharp image with realistic goals. There are often various kinds of role models this includes celebrity role models, community role model, and the athlete role model.

How and why does this person affect your life?

The role models tend to affect an individual's life in various ways that include, first. The role model demonstrates leadership and confidence, and he often tends to be that person who calm, positive and confident about his or her ideas. The role model also proves that he is contented with what he or she has achieved but still tries hard to attain bigger achievements. This kind of role model affects me as a nurse by showing me the kind of leadership I should portray when performing my duties, and show confidence in the leadership.

Communicates and interacts with everyone, the workers are motivated by leaders who explain why and where the organisation is heading. They always keep in touch with the workers to ensure constant interaction and sharing of information (Tomey, 2009). This kind of leader affects me as a nurse by empowering me on the kind of working environment that I should create. An environment where there is teamwork and constant interaction among workers.

What are the most important traits that leaders lack today?

In the modern society, most of the leaders are lacking certain key traits that are crucial in the in the workplace management and interaction. These traits include, first, humility; most leaders tend to use force to get things done in the workplace. Strong managers should avoid using power and force to get a thing done (Cribb, 2007). Secondly, critical thinking, this means looking at a particular situation in all perspectives. A good leader should portray the critical thinking traits, particularly when in charge of a team.

How can a leader avoid being corrupted by power and authority?

Authority and power often tend to be misused by most of the leaders for their gain this can be avoided through employing a number of measures that include, first, creating a conduit of accountability, as one gains authority, try to find a trustworthy person , probably a peer leader to give an honest feedback on your actions. The leaders should always run his ideas and challenges through this in peer-individual for scrutiny. Secondly, ask for ideas from the employees. A leader should continuously ask for views from the employees on how he is leading them for example by asking whether their critical needs are being attended to.

How can leaders still be a leader and yet remain loyal to the co-workers?

First, through creating Trust, great leaders offer there trust to the other employees without any limitation, which helps to improve on the co-worker's motivation. To offer their trust back in return by working hard to meet the needs of those they highly respect. Secondly, Openness and loyalty, open communication helps to create trust and confidence, thus creating the feeling of inclusion. Honest leaders make the employees stay longer than it would have been with leaders who hide information.

SECTION C

A summary of the article outlining the major errors or mistakes.

The medical error is about an 85-year-old resident of the nursing home who was returning from the hospital after obtaining treatment on her left hip fracture That she had obtained due to a fall when in the nursing home. As she was returning to the nursing home, the show was given a Lasix dose as well as new medication. Lasix was also part of her medication during her stay at the nursing home. On returning the new medication, orders from the hospital were rewritten in the new medication administration record. However, the previous ones in the MAR were not eliminated. When the nurse was checking, he concluded that the Lasix of the new medication was a duplication of the old Lasix medication and he, therefore, yellowed it out of the MAR. The nurse was however interrupted by a phone call when checking the MAR and orders another nurse to complete the process. The second nurse finished checking and noted that the old MAR was present and she removed it thus eliminating the Lasix medication. The nurse passing the medication noted that Lasix had been removed and therefore did not give it to the patient for the next three days. This lead to the patient having difficulties when breathing while the blood pressure level and the heart rate increased. After assessing her lungs, they were found to be moist with crackles. Later on, the patient got a heart attack and could not be resuscitated.

The errors in this case study occurred due to the nurse's mistakes. The first error occurs due to the first nurse wrong interpretation of the information in the medication administration record. The nurse also showed negligence for not following up to know the appropriate step to make. The second error occurred due to the second nurse not confirming the information. She went ahead to cancel the first Lasix in the old medication administration record. (The article is attached with the research)

SECTION D

Should nurse kirk have been terminated? Why and why not?

Yes, nurse kirk should have been terminated from her duties, this is because, and she did not follow the orders of the nursing director in charge. The odder was that the nurse should document what she had found out and stay off the matter, instead, she went ahead to discuss the issue with the chief of staff. This was a huge offence since the nursing director would have known the appropriate actions to take to solve the issue considering that she was the one in charge of all the patients and was aware of the patient issues and may have had a better solution than that of the chief of staff.

What was the outcome of the case do you think nurse kirk was found guilty.

Nurse kirk was not found guilty on the issue this is because; she responded appropriately, which was to report on the missing antibiotics order. This shows that she delivered her duties correctly by identifying the problem and reporting on the issue. Despite not following the orders on the incident reporting, her action did not lead to the death of the patient,

What actions if any do you think the board of nursing imposed on nurse kirk?

The nursing board terminated nurse kirk for not following the orders form the nursing director instead she chose to go to the chief of staff without consulting whether it was the best decision to make.

SECTION E

What did you learn about yourself during the nursing school?

Nursing school has taught me a lot about myself, the nursing school made me more confident and improved my ability to say no and set my priorities right. First, nursing school taught me that it is important to set goals that are achievable. It always gives me a lot of satisfaction to attain the goals that I had set or put in place. Setting goals gives one specific motivation to work extra hard to attain them when setting specific goals one should always assess how achievable...