Personal Nursing Philosophy
My personal nursing philosophy is based on the theory of comfort in nursing. I strongly believe that every patient deserves to experience comfort during their healing and recovery processes, to enhance their health outcomes. I believe that as a nurse, I should ensure that the patient feels cared for by always tending to their needs. For instance, turning the patient every 2 hours to decrease chances for pressure related injuries and decrease hospitalization for patients (Renganathan et al., 2019). When a patient is undergoing any ailment and is hospitalized, it is only natural for them to feel vulnerable and desire to be taken care of by a clinician. Turning the patient meets their physical need, which also reduces their chances of developing HAPIs and reduce the hospitalization. Therefore, I believe that the nurse should always provide the patient with physical comfort, such as ensuring that they have a comfortable bed or turning them at hourly intervals. To me, nursing is more than just treating an illness but ensuring that the patient received individualized comfort and care under the nurse’s care.
I also believe that nurses have the duty to provide their patients with patient-centered care that is holistic and comprehensive, since this kind of care ensures that the patient achieves positive outcomes. This philosophy is in tandem with the theory of comfort in nursing that requires that the nurse provides the patient with comfort such as ease, relief, and transcendence. To add to this, it is in tandem with the theory that, turning the patient every 2 hours will decrease chances for pressure related injuries and decrease hospitalization for patients (Chew et al., 2018). The aforementioned elements of comfort comprise holistic care because they ensure that the patient receives patient-centered care that manages their environment, their spiritual and emotional wellbeing, and their physical state. Therefore, based on this theory, I base my nursing philosophy by advocating that nurses should be able to provide their patients with holistic care. I would find it unfulfilling for a patient to receive physical relief, but they are uneasy with the nurse tending to them because the nurse is rude. Such a situation would deny them the comfort of ease and transcendence, hence; delay their recuperation and healing process, and extend their length of stay since they become mentally affected in such circumstances.
Theoretical Framework to Nursing Philosophy
As mentioned before, my personal nursing philosophy is based on the theory of comfort in nursing. One of the major assumptions within this theory is that the nurse is an essential component of the care process because they directly interact with the patient (Billings et al., 2015). I believe that this assumption ties with my philosophy because without the nurse, the patient would not receive the necessary care since it must be done by a professional. However, in understanding the nurse’s role in the patient’s care process, it remains imperative to recognize the need for the nurse to be conversant with holistic care, as required by the theory of comfort in nursing. While the nurse is an important component of the caregiving process for the patient, they must understand the best caregiving approaches, which, based on my personal nursing philosophy, is hinged upon holistic nursing.
Another assumption within the theory of comfort in nursing that ties with my philosophy in nursing is that this theory has major concepts such as nursing interventions, patient comfort, and healthcare needs, among others (Butts & Rich, 2017). A closer look at the nursing interventions within this theory reveals that the nurse should be able to develop interventions that increase the patient’s comfort to enhance their healing process and lead to positive health outcomes. In practicing my nursing philosophy, I need to understand the patient’s health needs so as to develop the best interventions that enhance the highest comfort levels. For instance, if a patient is experiencing nightmares during the night because of interacting with a specific family member during visiting hours, I would enhance the patient’s comfort by requesting that the family member refrain from seeing the patient since their presence triggers nightmares that slow the patient’s recuperation process. I would then suggest that the patient watches exciting shows in the evening to feed their subconscious mind with happier images, to reduce the incidence of the nightmares. By doing so, I believe that I would the theory’s assumption that posits that nursing interventions are an integral aspect of this theory.
Lastly, this theory assumes that patient comfort is achieved by an immediate state of being strengthened because the patient’s needs are met in a physical, environmental, social, and psycho-spiritual context (Koutoukidis, 2020). As mentioned in my nursing philosophy, I strongly believe that nurses have the duty to provide their patients with patient-centered care that is holistic and comprehensive, since this kind of care ensures that the patient achieves positive outcomes. Based on this assumption, I believe that meeting the patient needs within physical, environmental, social, and psycho-spiritual contexts is providing holistic nursing care that enhances patient comfort. For instance, I should ensure that the patient receives their visitors in good time to provide social comfort, I should consider turning the patient every 2 hours to decrease chances for pressure related injuries and decrease hospitalization for patients; which enhances physical comfort, and I should consider allowing the chaplain into the patient’s room upon request for the patient to receive their psycho-spiritual comfort. These examples exemplify this assumption and how applicable it is within nursing practice.
Comparison of Philosophy and Framework
My personal nursing philosophy is similar to the theory of comfort in nursing framework because it supports the comfort of the patient as the most important aspect of providing patient-centered care. My philosophy and the theory’s framework are similar because they focus on patient-centered care by enhancing patient comfort. For instance, the framework posits that patient comfort is achieved by an immediate state of being strengthened because the patient’s needs are met in a physical, environmental, social, and psycho-spiritual context. Similarly, my philosophy is that the nurse should always provide the patient with physical comfort, which is in tandem with the assumption.
Another similarity between the framework and the theory is that they place the nurse as the most important player in providing holistic care to the patient. The framework suggests that the nurse is essential to the caregiving process because they increase the patient’s comfort. My philosophy is similar to this framework because it highlights the nurse as the major player in providing the patient with comfort by developing desirable and effective interventions. For instance, one of the interventions exemplified above is to have the patient watch light content on television at night to avoid experiencing nightmares after their relatives visit. Such an intervention is developed by the nurse; which automatically places the nurse as a key player in providing the patient with comfort within a hospital setting.
Conflict between Framework and Philosophy
One of the situations that would create conflict between the theory of comfort in nursing framework and my personal nursing philosophy would be a situation where the patient prefers the physical comfort of avoiding physio-therapy when they have a broken hip. In this case, the patient must undergo the physio-therapy sessions to heal their broken hip. However, if the patient adamantly refuses to participate in the physio-therapy because they exercise their autonomy rights, the nurse is conflicted. As mentioned before, one of the most important concepts of this theory is providing the patient with physical comfort which provides them with relief. In this case, engaging in physio-therapy is relieving because it ultimately helps the patient heal. However, it is also important to acknowledge the fact that the patient will experience pain, which negates the aspect of providing the patient with physical comfort.
Another situation that would bring about conflict between the framework and the nursing philosophy is one where a patient prefers to avoid the psycho-spiritual comfort from the nurse; yet the nurse is required to provide that comfort. Part of the psycho-spiritual support that the nurse may offer a patient could be talk therapy especially in situations where the patient suffers from mental health conditions. The patient may decide to prefer silence whenever the nurse attends to them because they would like to process their thoughts. In such a case, the framework conflicts with the theory because it denies the nurse a chance to provide the patient with the comfort that is required by the theory.
Conclusion
My personal nursing philosophy is based on the theory of comfort in nursing, posited by Katharine Kolcaba. This theory posits that patients should receive holistic care through comfort by providing them with ease, relief, and transcendence. As such, turning the patient every 2 hours to avoid HAPIs provides them with ease and relief, which are core components of comfort care in nursing. The nurse is an essential component of the nursing process, and without them, patients would not receive comfort. Therefore, this fact means that nurses must learn all the necessary interventions required to maximize comfort in the patient. While this theory promotes patient health, there are conflicts between the nursing theory and its framework that may arise during nursing practice. For instance, a patient refusing physio-therapy because it denies them of the relief since it is a painful process. The nurse should seek interventions that promote patient health, and ultimately provide them with the elements of comfort as posited by the theory.
References
Billings, Diane M.; Halstead, Judith A. (2015). Teaching in Nursing – E-Book (p. 161). Elsevier Health Sciences. Kindle Edition
Butts, J., & Rich, K. (2017). Philosophies and Theories for Advanced Nursing Practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Jocelyn Chew, H. S., Thiara, E., Lopez, V., & Shorey, S. (2018). Turning frequency in adult bedridden patients to prevent hospital-acquired pressure ulcer: A scoping review. International Wound Journal, 15(2), 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.12855
Koutoukidis, G. (2020). Tabbner’s Nursing Care: Theory and Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Renganathan, B., Nagaiyan, S., Preejith, S., Gopal, S., Mitra, S., & Sivaprakasam, M. (2019). Effectiveness of a continuous patient position monitoring system in improving hospital turn protocol compliance in an ICU: A multiphase multisite study in India. Journal of the Intensive Care Society, 20(4), 309–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/1751143718804682