Nursing Philosophy: Principles and Practices for Quality Care

Running head: NURSING PHILOSOPHY
NURSING PHILOSOPHY
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NURSING PHILOSOPHY
Introduction:
Nursing can be described as the profession within the healthcare center that mainly
focuses on the care of individuals as well as families and communities so that they all can enjoy
the best quality health by overcoming physical and mental ailments. Nurses need to develop a
plan of care along with collaborating effectively with the different members of the healthcare
teams in multidisciplinary environments (Maughan et al., 2016). Nurses need to work with
physicians, therapists, patients, their family members as well as other members to ensure that the
care they provide successfully meets up the needs and requirements of the patients. Nurses have
to maintain their responsibility of caring for all individuals irrespective of their backgrounds,
races, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status and other factors by providing equal care to all in
a holistic manner. They need to devise care interventions that would align with the physical,
emotional, psychological as well as intellectual, social and spiritual needs of all. The profession
should combine life science along with physical science, social science, technology and nursing
theories in ways by which they can ensure the best care service that not openly helps patients to
recover from their disorders but also lead quality lives (McCormack et al., 2016). The primary
aim of the nurses would be to provide best evidence based care to patients through development
of both clinical and non-pharmacological skills and knowledge ensuring best health outcomes of
patients. This assignment would discuss nursing philosophies of nursing individuals that help
them to provide excellent care to the patients.
Nursing meta-paradigm:
The four phenomena of central interest also called the four nursing meta-paradigm
concepts that define nursing practices can be identified as the nursing, person, health and

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environment. Firstly, the phenomena of nursing can be explained as the nursing metaparadigm
concept that relates to art and science that guides the nursing interventions and the nursing
actions (Aliakbari et al., 2015). This concept is mainly seen to include the nurses in applying
professional knowledge as well as procedural and technical skills as well as direct and indirect
patient care. Secondly, another phenomenon is the phenomenon of person. The persons are the
individuals who are receiving the care and the concept mainly includes providing best healthcare
delivery by the nurses to not only patients but also to family and friends. The third concept is
called the phenomenon of health. It mainly refers to the mental and physical condition of the
patient and needs to be defined from the perspective of the patients (McDermott et al., 2018). It
refers to the level of wellness of the patient in all the aspects that include “physical,
psychological, mental, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual”. The ability of the individuals in
accessing healthcare as well as resources need to support health and wellness also need to be
included. Another important phenomenon is the phenomena of the environment. The
environment mainly comprises of the internal, external as well as social factors that impact the
health of patients. Nurses need to be careful about different aspects of the environment of the
patient like genetics, immune system, interpersonal relationships, culture, economics, mental
state as well as geographic location and even the educational level, ecology, social status, job,
career and many others (Baille, 2017).
Science or arts?
There has been often a debate as to whether nursing profession is based on science or that
of arts. Studies are of the opinion that nursing is more of science where the main responsibility of
nurses is to develop the patient based care plan. Nurses need to be well aware of the mechanisms
of all diseases and accordingly they need to set medications and their doses and manage various

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physical symptoms of the patients successfully. Nurses need to be well aware about how
different technological systems work, how to apply proper diagnostic procedures to identify the
disorders and hence reach conclusions of developing care plans (Chadwick & Gallagher, 2016).
However, many of the studies have contradicted stating that nurses who only know science can
never be able to ensure patient satisfaction even when they apply their clinical knowledge
successfully. “Human touch” is the concept where the second set of researchers argues that
nurses need to ensure proper human factors that ensure best healthcare outcomes of patients.
Nurses need to master the art where through their care; they can help the patients in developing a
sense of belonging, warmth, compassion as well as self-actualization. Nurses need to make the
patients feel respected and empowered and for that they need to establish strong relationships
through effective communication skills (Kennedy et al., 2015). Nurses need to develop
motivation and enthusiasm in the patients so that they feel empowered to develop self-care
abilities. Studies show that mutual trust and respect can develop when nurses form strong bonds
with patients through empathy and compassion. Such skills are examples of art that nurses need
to master. Therefore, Nursing is a mixture of both science and arts and these two aspects when
balanced properly will result in successful patient treatment.
Nursing philosophies:
One of the most important nursing principles that should be inculcated in practices is that
every nursing professional should treat their patients and their family members with
humanity, dignity and autonomy. Nurses need to understand the individual needs of patients
and show compassion and sensitivity and thereby provide care in a way by which they can
respect all people equally. Maintaining the bioethical principles of dignity and autonomy of the
patients ensure higher patient satisfaction as patients feel that the nurses respect their wishes and