Personal Nursing Philosphy
ANA Principles of Nursing
Nursing is considered a profession within the healthcare system that focuses on care of the individuals in our communities. They must learn medical terminology, disease processes, and a variety of hands-on skills to perform their jobs.
We are taught in nursing school that nurses follow a code of ethics that is laid out by the American Nurses Association. This code includes four ethical principles: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and nonmaleficence (ANA, 2021). In more simple terms, these mean educating clients to help them make their own decisions about their health, providing comfort to clients and ensuring their best interest is a priority, fairness, equality, and doing no harm. The ANA states that these nursing principles, when followed, ensure that the profession maintains a level of trust and support from the community in which it serves.
Why I Became a Nurse
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Ever since childhood, I have always felt this gravitational pull to care for living things. My love of animals started young. I can remember being a 6-year-old kid secretly stealing my older sister’s feeder mice (mice she kept in her room to feed her snake) and keeping them in my closet as my pets because I felt bad and did not want them to become food. My sympathy and passion for animals drove me into veterinary nursing as a young adult. I enjoyed forming relationships with pet owners and of course being able to bond with their dogs and cats. I quickly learned how to assess behavior changes in my patients, became skilled in all things veterinary medicine, and enjoyed teaching client’s ways to make their pet’s lives better. After 17 years, in 2022, I realized I did not have opportunities to move up in the field and felt “stuck”. I love my job but wanted more and decided to go to nursing school. There are a lot of similarities between animal nursing and human nursing, and it was something I felt could excel in while still being able to provide care to the people in my community, not just their pets.
Nursing Qualities
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The most important qualities I feel that a nurse should embody are compassion, empathy, and as stated in the ANA code of ethics, nonmaleficence, or doing no harm. If a nurse cannot put herself in her client’s shoes, and feel for them or understand what they may be going through, it is not the right profession to be in. Clients must be able to trust their nurses and believe that they have their best interests at heart. To me, there is nothing worse than feeling sick and having nobody genuinely caring for you in those moments. I strongly feel that as a nurse we must listen to our clients and provide more than simply basic care, but show we care on a deeper level.
Although I do not have much experience yet as an RN, I know what level and depth of care I would like to provide, and I understand there must be trust and respect in the nurse-to-client relationship.
References
Why ethics in nursing matters: Ethical principles in nursing. ANA. (2023, February 17). https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/why-ethics-in-nursing-matters/