Philosophy of nursing - Essay Example

THE EVOLUTION OF NURSING AS AN INTEGRATIVE CARING PROCESS The Evolution of Nursing as an Integrative Caring Process Nursing as a profession has evolved rapidly from non-methodological caring of the ill or injured, to a field that integrates various disciplines not just to provide care for the sick but as a holistic way of keeping the public’s health in top shape (Kulbok, et al., 2012). Such way of thinking regarding nursing has been established as such due to the changes that happened in the nurse-patient relationship, which in part was the result of the early integrations of interpersonal relations theory into the field through the efforts of a nursing theory pioneer: Hildegard Peplau (McCrae, 2012).

This partnership between nurse and patient evolved from a relationship where one does things for another, to a therapeutic partnership not only existing while the patient is ill but is extended long after getting better.Integrating the importance of understanding one’s behavior and how this affects the delivery of quality care for patients has turned nursing both into a science and art: science due to the importance of the basic principles of scientific inquiry; and art due to the nurse practitioner’s ability to be creative in applying or modifying various concepts and other bodies of knowledge such as evidence-based practice, depending on what the situation needs (Parker & Smith, 2010).

In addition, because establishing a nurse-client relationship that is based on trust and integrity has become just as important as the accuracy and applicability of the care provided, the nurses need to have an awareness not just on the patient’s whole situation but of themselves as well, to assess whether it is in their capacity to bring the necessary service or if they need other forms of assistance. This combination of methodological and creative thinking has made the nursing profession a science and an art.

I have chosen to become a nurse by profession because doing so allows me to express various sides of me: the scientific and methodological side; the creative side; and most importantly my caring side. This is because in reality, various disciplines are not strictly separated but rather overlap with one another, thus it is important to acknowledge the fact that every kind of discipline, even the nursing profession borrows other ideas from seemingly-different fields such as psychological theories to business and economics in the process of improving care delivery for patients and other stakeholders.

Such ideas were inspired by Peplau’s ground-breaking psychodynamic theory, which integrated interpersonal theory, a psychological theory into the field of nursing, and is now considered to be one of the most important foundations of nursing itself (Allan, 2011).Peplau’s theory on Interpersonal Relations made her one of the earliest nurse theorists, which cites that the nurse-patient relationship represents the idea of providing care through human physical contact, thus it is important that difficulties stemming from human relations problems must be addressed to prevent nurses from having difficulties in providing care for patients (Peterson & Bredow, 2009).

Also, there is a two-way growth in the relationship since not only do the patients become healed, but the nurses also get a chance to grow and improve in the process as well, enabling them to become better in the future (Allan, 2011). Peplau’s integration of the interpersonal relationship theory helped recognize that nursing is not in itself a straightforward and narrow route but rather a dynamic profession that allows flexibility and new avenues for growth.The impact of Peplau’s interpersonal theory on my future practice will have a strong impact because this will require me to think outside the box and be creative since it has been well-recognized that the needs of every patient can be different, even between similar age groups or symptoms.

Recognizing their individual needs also requires me to understand their perspectives, so that I can give them the care that they need without them having negative feelings such as disrespect or invasion of privacy, which are most often reported by geriatric patients and cause them to refrain from getting the help that they need. In addition, Peplau and her works also inspire me to pay more attention on real-life situation applications through evidence-based practice (EBP) more than general theories since these mostly serve as rough guidelines, in contrast to EBP which has direct applications, has been the product of countless real-life trial-and-error situations and has been observed to be effective in many patients on different occasions.

I consider EBP to be the creative products of knowledge and situations, and by integrating methodological methods with creativity, I can better give patients a personalized caring and health plan, which I believe is the main product of using an interpersonal relationship approach. To conclude, the evolution of nursing from a passive and non-methodological profession into one that integrates many ideas from other disciplines has changed nursing roles from healing the sick to keeping the people healthy and well.

This is due to the early efforts of Hildegard Peplau in focusing on the relationship aspects of nursing through her Interpersonal Relation theory and becoming one of the foundations of nursing practice due to its integrative nature with other fields and disciplines. By following her example on an integrated approach to caring through interpersonal relationships, not only can I improve my skills in providing care to patients, but also allow me to be flexible, accommodating, and most important of all, to help patients become healthy as holistically as possible.

ReferencesAllan, H. T. (2011). Using psychodynamic small group work in nurse education: Closing the theory–practice gap? Nurse Education Today, 31(5), 521-524.Kulbok, P., Thatcher, E., Park, E., & Meszaros, P. (2012). Evolving public health nursing roles: focus on community participatory health promotion and prevention. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 17(12), doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol17No02Man01 .McCrae, N. (2012). Whither Nursing Models? The value of nursing theory in the context of evidence‐based practice and multidisciplinary health care.

Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68(1), 222-229.Parker, M., & Smith, M. (2010). Nursing theories & nursing practice. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.Peterson, S.J., & Bredow, T.S. (2009). Middle range theories: application to nursing research. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.