THE PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

The Philosophy of Nursing

The Philosophy of Nursing

Nursing as a human science tries to find and explains the phenomena of human life and human health experiences of individuals, families, or other variety group of people. How can human life be defined? Each person has different points of view to define human life. Human health experiences as science are behavioral functions of human life. The nursing profession bases its practice on human science. This generates knowledge for nurses through education, experience, and research. There are three concepts related to my reflections.

The first concept is Humanism and Humanistic Nursing Theory. Encarta Dictionary says that humanism is a system of thought that centers on human beings and their values, capacities, and worth. Encarta also goes on the say that, in the philosophy, humanism is an attitude that emphasizes the dignity and worth of an individual. Humanistic Nursing Theory is defined as “A theory and practice that rest on an existential philosophy, value experiencing and the evolving of the "new," and aim at a phenomenological description of the art-science of nursing viewed as a lived intersubjective transactional” (Bernzweig, 1996 pp 112). This concept includes individuality, intersubjectivity, and interpersonal relationship. Each individual is considered unique and distinguished from others. Different cultural backgrounds, experiences, personalities, emotions, and talents define a person as a unique individual. In the group discussion in class, even though the “ I want help in and I can help in” sentence was the same, my classmate had different answers because they are different individuals. Also, the term can be found intersubjective, which is pertaining to two or more human beings and shared between them (Black, 2005Pp 145). We, as a nurse, interact with many patients and people.

The second concept is universal phenomena, which includes comfort, pain, loss, and grief. The word, comfort, is “a feeling of well-being by something as complex as a satisfying personal relationship or the removal or lessening of pain, anxiety, grief, or fear” (Bliss-Holtz, 2004, pp 36). I worked in a long-term care facility. There was one resident who just was admitted to the nursing home with friends and was diagnosed with dementia. She seemed so quiet at first. However, after all her friends left, she looked angry and kept saying, “ I want to go home. This is not my home.” She seemed anxious and angry. The certified nurse assistant who was assigned to her tried to make her comfortable. She assured her all the time, “ You will be ok. I understand your feelings.” Even though the resident could not understand English, she seemed to calm down and adjust to the facility (Reflection 4).

According to Encarta Dictionary, pain is “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience caused by real or potential injury or damage to the body or described in terms of such damage” (2008). I worked in a rehabilitation unit two weeks ago. There was a resident who had fallen and injured her right arm which she is now in a ...