Nursing entails a spirit of caring interpersonal communication critical thinking and therapeutic interventions. Nursing has been a career that offers assistance to society by providing quality care and upholding all people’s dignity. Philosophy of nursing ensures that nurses are taught to offer quality care to all regardless of people’s races religion origin social status or their gender. It is therefore the role of nurses to ensure that the care they offer is not dependent on one’s background but on the patient’s needs or requirements. The environment should be well structured to enable maximum or optimal service delivery of quality care. The care should be timely so that patients are well attended to before it is too late and detrimental effects occur.
Most people still lack health insurance and have to use the ‘out of pocket’ approach in funding for their services, which deems expensive and discouraging. Health care should be a basic human right and people should not be denied on the basis of inability to pay. Affordable cost for the health care should be ensured so that people are not denied access to care due to their lack of affordability. It is always the goal of nurses to ensure that quality care is enhanced so that patients’ levels of satisfaction are higher. Nurses will only be satisfied if the quality of care they offer satisfy the patients.
In future nursing practice, the philosophy of nursing will ensure that care given is effective. This will be because the nurses will understand the patients well and will offer or provide a patient centered environment. It will ensure that all needs are well addressed. For instance the emotional needs, physical, cultural and spiritual needs of individuals. Care offered should be well coordinated and safe to benefit the patients. In serving patients they respect their personal dignity and ensure confidentiality. They also ensure that they are accountable or show responsibility to the society. A unique contribution to health is made by nurses as patients need their care after diagnosis and treatment.
(Teeley et al, 2006)
Transition from RN to BSN will build on unique attributes, know-how and expertise about nursing. It will equip me with appropriate skills to handle patients better.
The basic paradigms or parties that nursing deal with are patient or client, the environment and health. The client includes the individual and the family or the community. The nursing philosophy enables the nurse to able to handle or well manage the patients, their families and the community at large. An all inclusive system ensures a healthy relationship between the three parties.
The environment entails internal and external factors that include social, cultural, economic, political, legal, spiritual and ethnic perspectives. The environment ensures differences in people’s health. Different environment influences or results to varying health conditions. People with economic hardships are prone to have adverse effects due to uncontained preventive diseases. The philosophy of nursing encourages devotion to quality health for all despite status. This means that even the economic unwell will be attended to leading to equitable health care. A nurse with the cultural and spiritual understanding will offer competent care. The care will be sensitive to the person’s culture and will yield effective results. Good understanding of various spiritual aspects and how they affect people’s view towards health care provision. A nurse will be able to understand the environment and then be able to establish the most efficient care for the patient. The patient will not doubt the care offered but will appreciate it.
Health deals with different aspects of human being wellness. It entails physical psychological, social and spiritual harmony of an individual. The connectedness of the four aspects to form equilibrium is what is referred to as health. It enables one’s ability to be productive, resistant to stress and ability to meet self care needs. Understanding that illness would be due to interruption of one of the factors helps the nurse to offer better health care as it will be able to establish loopholes that cause illness and sealing them will be easier.
The nurse will gain experience and will be able to respond effectively to situations as they arise. The philosophy will make me a better health care provider and my roles as a leader, trainer or advisor and advocate will be replenished. I will be able to promote social justice by advocating for equity in health care. Nurses can influence public policy and help in meeting the needs of the society in improving the overall health and delivery of health care.
Nursing encompasses putting in mind the physical, psychological, social environment and spiritual well being of individuals. It is very important to offer cultural sensitive care or culturally competent care. Collaborating patients, other health care providers and the community at large in establishing solutions to health problems is beneficial to the society.
Nursing advocates for health promotion, prevention means and is based on care that is manageable, applicable, timely, culturally sensitive and affordable.
Nursing education works to provide a challenging supportive or beneficial nation. Practical lessons will be learned in the BSN program and they will increase my knowledge on addressing certain issues. It will prepare me to enter in to the masters’ degree level which will be essential in teaching, administration and teaching as well as nursing research roles that will be inevitable in future. It will equip me with practical competence to complement the theoretical skills acquired. Provision of services to individuals, families, and communities at large will be easier.
Thinking capacity will be enriched as it will entail critical thinking and decision making. I will be able to respond amicably to the many and varying needs of individuals and communities at large. (Elizabeth, 2000)
Shift from RN to BSN will help me in advancing the career. The knowledge gained will add on the technical training and reviewing research will be easier. I will be able to better advocate for the patient with the better understanding leadership skills enhanced though this program. Again I can be able to better manage home health care clinic and ambulatory services. (Staib, 2003)
The program offers personal satisfaction which can not be underscored. It equips an individual with modern information on technology and intellectual expertise both of which enrich personal development.
The BSN is founded on the belief that people are unique and should be treated with dignity and they have the right to preserve their personal, ethnic and cultural identities. The essence of nursing is human caring and it comprises of preventive as well as research based interventions for both individuals and communities. The course is offered in schools with diverse population and students starts appreciating diverse cultures. It entails critical thinking, active learning, investment in quality and research and promotion of global peace. I will be able to acquire effective communication skills which will not only improve my communication with other staff members but also with the patient population. I will be able to communicate well with the minority populations who feel neglected from the mainstream. I will also interact with the community in research programs and I will be able to foster community engagement which will lead development of skills in collaboration, resources management and program development.
Minority groups like women of color, immigrants, elderly, obese, gay, and Tran gendered people are at higher prevalence of facing diversity in accessing health care. The role of a nurse as per the nursing philosophy is to ensure accessibility of quality care regardless of one’s age, race, origin, gender or sexual orientation. The mortality rates are higher for minority groups and their life expectancy is lower. Diverse cultures and languages hinder effective communication with the care providers and it creates a strenuous relationship. Lack of trust negatively impacts on health care provision. Better understanding of cultures will be met through the BSN program and communication will be better.
Cultural based care can focus on the nurse, the care itself or the total health system. This means that nurses provides care that is consistent with the health and illness, values, beliefs and patterns of behavior of the person being cared for. The nurse could be from a different background but the care he/she should be relevant to the person being cared for. Health care should be culture sensitive and culturally appropriate. Individual nurses will incorporate cultural competencies when dealing with patients.
Educational institution like schools offering BSN give appropriate training and the government creates a conducive environment enabling health services effectively apply culturally competent care.(Rodwell,1996)
Minority groups are less likely to get appropriate cardiac medication under go cardiac bypass surgery or receive kidney transplants. Such people lack the know-how about handling certain medical conditions. Nurses can help in such cases since they can offer care that will increase the patient to have health seeking behavior. Problems encountered by these groups include poor housing, poor transportation facilities to enable easy accessibility to job places or health facilities, lack of health insurance, inadequate access to culturally effective health care and economic problems. All these create more difficulties for them in accessing quality health services (http://www.aecf.org/OurWork/Health.aspx)
The poor lack finances to attain efficient and effective health care. In most cases they prolong or delay in accessing health services due to lack of finances.
The consequence of this is the death of many through what would have actually been controlled has it been detected earlier. Again they feel that they are discriminated and could have been treated better had they been from other status in society. Previous experiences could further worsen the situation. Nurses with a BSN acquire the practical skills of how to offer quality care to such marginalized groups in society and this will increase the efficiency of health care provision.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people face discrimination in accessing health services. This is because nurses tend to consider them as disgusting and despised them. They are also denied access to medical schools with some people claiming that they should not gain gynecological training. Prejudice and bias based on one’s sexual orientation creates discrimination which hinders effective healthcare. Training in the BSN will remove such prejudice towards equal access to heath care.
(http://www.metrokc.gov/HEALTH/glbt/providers.htm#discrimination)
Most people in the US lack health care coverage. This is attributed to the fact that the health insurance is not easy to achieve. Employers pay for their employees and the poorly paid people are not offered such benefits. Other people are underinsured and this negatively affects their access to the health care services. Nurses can influence the policy making of a nation, and they can speak for such people by advocating for universal health care. Again offering care should be due to the need of the patient and not their ability to pay for such services. Poor families lack access to affordable health care due to their financial constraints. They are prone to diseases like TB, HIV, depression and diabetes. Nurses through their research and interaction with the communities can establish such problems before they result to detrimental effects and assist in curbing them. Offering preventive care training on the vulnerable population will be a step forward in ensuring that quality health care is provided. Again nurses should not reject treating patients since they lack health insurance coverage. (Burchard, 2005)
Inability to communicate leads to inappropriate health care. Nurses will be able to understand people and better communicate with them and efficiency in health care provision will be achieved. Better health care services entail respecting patients regardless their background. Education in the BSN enables nurses to improve their self awareness and enables them provide services without prejudice which would have negative impact on the provision of health services. Prejudice and hinder effective quality health care.
Health is dynamic and requires constant adaptation to external and internal environment stressing factors. Diseases are caused by imbalances on the environmental factors. Health decisions are influenced by one’s knowledge culture and the society. The environment provides for the development of individual and influence nursing.
A one year masters program will prepare me more for the nursing career. Advanced roles in nursing will be easier to deal with on completion of the degree. I will be able to contribute to designing and implementation of healthcare services. Analyzing political and organizational system will be possible on acquiring the masters’ degree.
Introduction of specialist who can assist health care organizations with effective analysis to establish its efficiency can help in providing with effective cost reduction measures which would have an overall effect of reducing the cost of attaining health care. The marginalized people in society will be able to access quality health care. Nurses can provide information gathered from research they conduct in the communities.
Advanced registered nurse practitioner entails a combination of knowledge and skills acquired through previous RN and BSN education. (Brooks and Shepherd, 1992)
I will be able to perform advanced assignments, diagnosis, administrative roles and prescriptions that require keen details. I will also be in a position to obtain consultations with relevant authorities where I can use the basic tenets in nursing philosophy in advocating for equality in health care provision. Ability to handle the complicated tasks will be due to my educational as well as experiential preparedness acquired. (Fusun, 2006).
References:
Burchard J .2005.Family Nursing: Challenges and Opportunities: What Will the Challenges for Family.
C. M. Rodwell .1996.An analysis of the concept of empowerment. Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Teeley, K. H., Lowe et al 2006. Incorporating Quality improvement concepts and practice into a community health nursing course. The Journal of nursing education.
Staib S. 2003.Teaching and measuring critical thinking. The Journal of
Nursing education.
Brooks L. and Shepherd M. 1992. Professionalism versus general critical thinking abilities of senior nursing students in four types of nursing curricula. Journal of Professional Nursing,
Elizabeth Girot. 2000. Graduate nurses: critical thinkers or better decision makers? Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Fusun Terzioglu. 2006. The perceived problem-solving ability of nurse managers. Journal of Nursing Management.
King Town.2005.Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Health. Retrieved on 13th November 2007 from
http://www.metrokc.gov/HEALTH/glbt/providers.htm#discrimination
The Annie E. Casey Foundation.2007.Health.Retrieved on 13th November 2007 from
http://www.aecf.org/OurWork/Health.aspx
