My Nursing Philosophy

698 Words3 Pages
My Nursing Philosophy and the Theory of Caring The development of a nursing philosophy is important for all nurses. As a nurse, I am attempting to establish my personal philosophy of nursing. Nursing is concerned with promoting and restoring health while providing care. Nursing focuses not only on the individual patient and his or her medical needs, but on the entire being and their environment. Nurses can be influential and have an impact on the people around them, therefore it is important for them to consider all aspects of that individual when providing care in order to effectively promote and restore health. Povlsen and Borup (2011) indicate that nursing care is done at an individual level that embraces the mind, body, and spirit of…show more content…
Jean Watson’s theory of caring is one that is simple and concise. Watson’s theory emphasizes that we ought to think about caring as the center of our nursing profession. According to Watson (2008) the science of caring is the core of the nursing profession. If we do not have care then we cannot nurse. According to Lachman (2012) nursing and caring are entangled into one and are essential for human development and survival. Accordingly, Granados Gámez (2009) emphasizes that caring is the ultimate goal of the nurse. The theory of caring accentuates a holistic approach to care and the distinctive patient-nurse relationship. According to Povlsen and Borup (2011) the idea of holism is essential when nurses are promoting health. The transpersonal caring relationship, the carative factors, and caring occasion or caring moment are the three major concepts of Watson’s theory. Watson (2008) explains that a moment becomes transpersonal when the nurse connects with the spirit of her patient and they are then able to learn from one another. The nurse gains a better understanding of the patient’s experience. According to Watson (2008) this is where “we learn to recognize our selves in…show more content…
The 10 elements that makeup the carative factors are humanistic-altruistic system of value, faith-hope, sensitivity to self and others, helping-trusting human care relationships, expressing positive and negative feelings, creative problem solving caring process, transpersonal teaching-learning, supportive, protective and or/corrective mental, physical, socio-cultural and spiritual environment, human needs assistance and existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces (Parker, 2005). Every single one of these carative factors validates the importance of a caring nurse-patient relationship and should be used as a guide to caring in practice. According to Smith (2012) the ten carative factors promote healing of the whole person. Watson (2008) further explains that caring that is effective promotes health, healing and
Open Document