How do the worldviews demonstrated in your own nursing
environment compare with a Christian worldview? What tensions
arise from the differing worldviews of your employer, colleagues,
and the patients or students in your care?
Worldviews of My Nursing Environment
I am lucky to work with many nurses that share my cultural and
spiritual beliefs. I believe this is because living in a small town allows for few
differences and they are usually not in the realm of spirituality or culture.
However, my town is the home of a teaching hospital. We house a WVU
Medicine owned hospital that sees hundreds of students from all walks of life
each year. The migratory status of students and travel healthcare staff allows
for many cultures and beliefs to come into play in the hospital environment. I
believe that with each new person that enters the healthcare setting they
leave an imprint on everyone around them that allows for a few of their
beliefs to be left behind when they leave, I also believe that the imprint that
they leave allows for personal and professional growth.
My Worldviews
I believe that God puts every person in your life for a reason. Every
person in your life has a lesson to teach you. I am one that greatly enjoys
when a new class of medical students comes through or a new rotation of
nursing students. They each have their own individual life lessons to teach
and to be learned. I love learning about their cultures, their ways of life, and
their religion. I believe that the more cultured I am, the more I will be able to
connect on a deeper level to my patients. Although I am a devout Christian
and follow the word of God, I do realize that others around me may have
different beliefs. Just as I do not wish for them to disrespect me, I do not wish
to disrespect them. I believe that healthcare representation is so important
to the patient feeling accepted. Many of us do not know how it feels to be the
odd man out. By feeling included the patient has the ability to connect and
thrive in a healing environment.
My worldview is based on true acceptance. Matthew 7:12 states,
“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is
the Law and the Prophets.” There are many verses that talk about loving thy
neighbor and we learn from a very young age to treat others the way that we
want to be treated. By making sure my patients are seen and heard I allow
them to have the comfortable environment that they deserve to heal in. I do
this by following the teachings of the Bible.
Tensions that May Arise
There was a sentence that stuck out to me in the readings from this
week. Shelly and Miller (2006) state, “When the church grew weak and
corrupt, nursing suffered and declined”. It is easy to allow differences
between people to poke holes in the foundation that we have built under
ourselves. There are some physicians that feel as though the patient should
follow their recommendations instead of participating in the plan of care.
Submission from the patient to the doctor is thought of as easier and does
not create conflict. Chang and Lim (2019) state, “with control of knowledge,
biomedical doctors are able to maintain a hegemonic status and use their
authority to define health and illness and use their authority to define health
and illness and to demand patient compliance.” The next sentence reads
that traditional practitioners cannot exert power in the same way. This means
that physicians, nurses, and all other providers can have a difference of
opinions when it comes to the plan of care for a patient. With each new
personality, religious worldview, or culture comes a new element for the staff
and patients to learn. Each person has their own preferences that may or
may not mesh well with the existing culture within a hospital. I believe that
the most sensitive area for breakdown is direct patient care. Some
individuals would rather go the holistic approach while others would rather
take medication to fix the problem. If the care team does not find a solid
ground before implementing their expertise with the patient, there is a large
chance that the plans fall apart right in front of the patient.
References.
Change, L & Lim, J. C. J. (2019). Traditional Chinese medicine physicians’
insights into interprofessional tensions between traditional Chinese medicine
and biomedicine: A critical perspective. Health Communication, 34(2), 238-
247. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1405478
Holy Bible. (1996). New King James Version. Matthew 7:12.
Shelly, J & Miller, A. B. (2006). Called to care: A Christian worldview for
nursing (2nd ed.).InterVaristy Press.
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