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Personal Philosophy of Nursing
I grew up in a very poor village in the Philippines. Poverty was so severe that I grew up
without knowing the luxury of electricity, running water or a functioning toilet until I was twelve
years old. We had to fetch water from artesian wells, collect woods for cooking, and utilize
kerosene lamps to light our nights. We took a bath in the streams and had to run and hide in the
sugarcane fields whenever we needed to use the bathroom. Every ailment was treated with a
concoction made from boiling guava leaves and a visit to the community faith healer who would
advise to offer eggs and meat to “unseen spirits” to alleviate any illness. Many people died
without ever seeing a doctor or stepping foot inside the hospital.
I was fifteen years old when my mother started noticing a mass behind her right ear. This
mass started slowly growing until it started to cause pain, began to impede her hearing, and
slowly distorted her appearance. Not having any access to healthcare, our family borrowed
money from friends and relatives so we can raise the money for transportation. My mother and I
travelled to Manila and stood in line for days seeking for a cure to her condition. A family friend
advised my mother to go to the charity line of St. Luke’s Hospital, one of the premiere hospitals
in the Philippines. We were blessed because my mother was selected as one of the charity cases
who would receive hospitalization and treatment without a fee. The hospital waived all the
required professional and medical fees for her hospitalization and operation in exchange for
surgery residents having the chance to practice their surgical skills on a case as complicated as
my mother’s.
My mother had a long and complicated surgery involving excision of a parotid mass
which spread to her face and neck. I was with her the entire duration of her hospital stay. When
they wheeled her to the operating room, I was told to sit and wait for her in the family waiting
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area. Everything in the hospital scared the fifteen-year-old me. The bright lights, the endless
beeping of the machines, the hurried pace of the people wearing white coats and white scrubs,
the cries of agony and pain; all these painted a horrifying picture in my mind that scared my
young self deeply. I was drowning in fright and I was sitting shriveled in one corner when an
angel dressed in white approached me and asked me if I was doing okay. Her gentle touch, her
soothing voice and her resplendent smile told me that everything will be alright. She took the
time from her busy day to explain to me what is happening, what to expect after my mother’s
surgery and what I should do right after my mother comes out of the operating room. Because of
her, I found the courage to stay strong for my mother.
For the entire duration of my mother’s stay in the hospital, this nurse always checked up
on us, asking if we had any questions, checking if my mother is having adequate pain relief,
making sure that her recovery was with no complications. She spoke to the doctors whenever we
had concerns that we were too scared to ask the doctors. She taught me how to clean and take
care of my mother’s surgical wound after she got discharged from the hospital. This experience
was a turning point in my life; it was at that point when I realized that caring for people in their
most vulnerable and lowest point in life is a wonderful gift. This was the day when I decided
that I would become a nurse.
My Personal Philosophy
Nursing Defined
Nursing is the focal point that sustains the healthcare system and is at the core of every
patient’s health care journey. One of my nursing instructors once mentioned, “People don’t go to
hospitals for medical care. They go to hospitals because they seek nursing care, the human
element, the caring touch, the 24/7 care that only nurses can provide. If people just needed the
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care provided by doctors, they can just go to the clinics and have their prescription medicines
written for them.” Nurses are not the doctors’ handmaidens, who will act only according to the
doctor’s orders. Nurses are frontline members of the health care team, and they play a pivotal
role in saving and improving the lives of every patient they encounter.
While I believe that there is a plethora of roles that a nurse has to engage in while
functioning in the healthcare setting, there are certain roles that I believe make up the core of my
nursing practice. The foundations of my personal philosophy of nursing are based on what I
believe are the three most important roles of a nurse in every patient they encounter everyday
regardless of the healthcare setting: advocacy, caring and education.
Advocating for Patients: A Nurse’s Legacy
I believe that one of my most important roles as a nurse is to be a patient advocate. As a
nurse, I deem that it is my sacred task to protect the interests of my patient when the patient
themselves cannot because of their health condition, or because they have inadequate knowledge.
Being a patient advocate means acting to intercede on behalf of a patient and ensuring the patient
has a voice in the delivery of care. As a nurse advocating for the patient, it is important to make
sure that the patient has awareness of his or her rights and feels supported when making
decisions about care. Nurses have this unique task of encouraging patients to make their own
choices about their healthcare and to abide by the patients’ wishes even when they are in conflict
with our own.
I attended to a patient’s Rapid Response Team call one night. The patient was on hospice
care but asked to be brought to the ER for severe unrelenting pain. At the inpatient ward, she
presented with deteriorating vital signs. As I started my assessment, the patient said, “I am
confused.” I asked her, “What are you confused about?” She said, “I am confused about this
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DNR/DNI status. I know I am not going to live for the next 5 years. I just want to stay alive
until my daughter and her family can travel from Seattle to see me here in the hospital. I just
want to be able to say goodbye. I won’t be able to do that if I die tonight.” I held both her
hands and told her, “I am going to make sure that your wishes will be respected. Let me talk
with the healthcare team.” I called the entire healthcare team and discussed what the patient
revealed to me. The patient was eventually transferred to ICU, where she was able to live for
one more week and was able to say goodbye to her family before passing away.
As a fifteen-year-old, seeing my mother lying in the hospital bed with tubes connected to
her and machines beeping around her, I had a thousand questions in my mind, but I could not
find the right words and I didn’t have the voice to inquire about my mother’s care. But I was
blessed to have had a nurse to advocate for my mother and I, speaking on our behalf and making
sure our concerns were heard by the healthcare team. The amazing gift of being a patient
advocate is an endowment that I intend to pay forward to every patient I encounter, making sure
that my patient’s voice, wishes and concerns will always be integrated in all aspects of patient
care. As a Christian nurse, I am always reminded of a sacred task noted in Proverbs 31: 8-9
(New International Version), “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights
of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Caring: The Nucleus of Nursing
“Caring was proven integral and weaved through the profession of nursing as the very
foundation upon which the fundamentals and principles of nursing practice are grounded”
(Adams, 2016, p. 1). I believe that caring and nursing are so deeply intertwined that nursing
would cease to exist without the act of caring. Caring is recognizing that every patient we
encounter is a human being with emotions and whose experiences affect their health and well-
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being. When we truly care as nurses, we exhibit compassion, empathy and respect for our
patients. We learn to provide kind and considerate treatment to our patients at all times. The
power of human touch, a hug, a smile, a soothing voice, a listening ear – all of these can make a
difference in the care we provide to our patients.
I had an 82-year-old patient in the ICU who was admitted for a lower GI bleeding. She
needed a bowel preparation for a repeat colonoscopy. Imaging obtained during the colonoscopy
that day was obscured by inadequate bowel preparation. She had to use the bedpan twenty-three
times that night, as the solution made her have frequent bowel movements. She kept apologizing
to me but I told her not to worry about it. All I was concerned about was her safety and health,
and all she needed to do was to press her call bell and I will be there to assist her. This happened
the entire night and I was exhausted towards the end of that shift. As I said goodbye to my
patient after the hand-off with the day shift nurse, my patient said, “Thank you for being so
patient with me. The entire night, you always went inside the room with a smile. You never
once made me think that you felt disgusted with me and my condition.”
Sometimes, colleagues reprimand me that I spoil patients too much, that I spend too
much time listening to their whines and complaints and that they tend to look for the same level
of care from other nurses as well. But as it was the caring and compassionate actions of a nurse
who took care of my mother twenty years ago led me to the path of this profession, I will always
uphold the belief that my patients deserve nothing but kind and compassionate care. I know the
lasting impact that caring can have, especially when we care for others at their most vulnerable
moments. I believe that all the patients that God places in my care are broken, hurt and suffering
from a physical or emotional ailment and I am being used as God’s instrument of healing. It is
challenging but I believe God’s grace will always sustain me. As 1 John 3:17-18 (English
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Standard Version) says, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet
closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in
word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Education: The Nurse as a Mentor
As nurses, our responsibility does not end when we speak for our patients’ behalf or when
we provide kind and compassionate care. We are also tasked with the responsibility of ensuring
that patients take a proactive role in their own health care. Effective patient education enables
patients to better understand and manage their own health and medical care throughout their
lives. Patient understanding of information communicated by healthcare providers can result to
enhanced patient satisfaction, better compliance with treatment instructions, improved health
outcomes, and decreased treatment times and costs (Marcus, 2014).
I have seen other nurses take the task of educating patients in a stride. When discharging
patients from the hospital, an important aspect of nurse engagement is giving the discharge
teaching. I have watched fellow nurses hurriedly give patients a print-out of teaching materials
prior to discharging patients. I have tried my best to start educating patients to be more self-
sufficient in their care a few days prior to discharge. When I worked in the postpartum unit, all
post-cesarean section delivery patients were prescribed with enoxaparin injections for 7 days to
prevent deep vein thrombosis. I have seen fellow nurses hurriedly explain self-injection of this
medication few minutes prior to the patient’s discharge. As a result, many patients went back to
the hospital’s emergency room, stating that they do not know how to self-administer the injection
or are scared to do it by themselves. I always take the time to start my discharge teaching on day
two of hospitalization and prior to discharge, I make sure that my patients are confident in the
self-injection and will be able to complete the required number of doses for the medication.
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Remembering how this special nurse patiently taught me how to clean and dress my
mother’s surgical wound when I was fifteen years old, I always remind myself that my role as a
nurse is not just to care but to teach as well. Taking the time for patient education is a
challenging task. Oftentimes, time constraints and patient demands make it tough to make
patient teaching a priority. As a nurse facing these challenging situations, I always circle back to
my prior experience when a nurse teaching me how to care for my mother empowered me and
left a lasting impact in my life. I remind myself that I am doing this to fulfill God’s greater
purpose in the lives of the patients God places under my care. As Colossians 3:17 (ESV) states,
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him.”
Conclusion
While taking this journey of reflection and introspection to look back on what molded
and contributed to the development of my personal philosophy of nursing, I have come to a
realization on how my personal experiences, values and beliefs played an integral role in
defining my nursing practice. My decade-long experience has been full of laughter and tears,
unforgettable patients, remarkable colleagues, extraordinary interactions with patients and
families and memorable experiences that changed my life for the better. The foundation of my
nursing practice is pay forward to others the life-changing experiences that I had when I was at
the other end of the spectrum – being a patient/family member. Serving as a patient advocate,
providing kind and compassionate care, and educating my patients to promote empowerment and
being proactive in their care – these are the fundamental tenets that define my nursing practice.
As I take on more challenges as a nurse, I rely on my guiding life verse Philippians 4:13 (New
King James Version), “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
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References
Adams, L. Y. (2016). The conundrum of caring in nursing. International Journal of Caring
Sciences, 9(1), 1-8. Retrieved from
http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/1_1-Adams_special_9_1.pdf
Marcus, C. (2014, April 28). Strategies for improving the quality of verbal patient and family
education: A review of the literature and creation of the EDUCATE model. Health
Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 2(1), 482-495.
https://doi.org/https://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F21642850.2014.900450
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