Self Awareness In Nursing Essay

Firstly one should exactly understand what self-awareness is. Well it is one of the first components of the self-concept to emerge while self-awareness is something that is central to each and every one of us, it is not something that we are aware of at every minute of the day but it appears from different points of time depending on the situation and personality of particular situation or individual. Clients or nurses for that case are not actually born with self-awareness, but it slowly comes with age and growth. According to experts self-awareness is a psychological state in which people are aware of their thoughts, feelings and behavior. Alternately it can be defined as the “realization of oneself as an individual entity” (C...

In the words of the late Virginia Henderson: “nurses help people, sick or well, to do those things needed for health or a peaceful death that people would do on their own if they had the strength, will, or knowledge.” Truer words were never spoken-- my personal nursing philosophy is much like Henderson’s in that I believe nurses do not simply follow physician’s orders, but utilize their knowledge, skills, and ability to think critically in order to help patients achieve a better quality of life.

The majority of our society holds the notion that nurses are no more than trained professionals, working for a doctor, who simply provide medical care for the sick and informed. However, what nursing means to me goes deeper than that belief. Nursing is a profession in which individuals are responsible for not only the care of the sick and infirmed but are also responsible for being a support system and an educator, as well as an advocate for the promotion of optimal care. In today’s society, nurses are an important part of any medical facility’s investment. This paper will address the many different aspects of nursing in which nurse’s act as not only caregivers but also act as, counselors and educators.

Nursing is a nurturing profession, and caring is an essential component of its practice. Caring for others, however, is stressful. The goal of nursing is to help people gain a higher degree of harmony within the mind, body and soul, which generates self-knowledge, self- reverence, self- healing and self-care processes while increasing diversity. This goal may be pursued through the implementation of ten carative factors, via the human-to-human caring process and caring transactions, or clinical caritas processes.

The nursing profession is evolving to accommodate the constantly changing world of the health care field and to better serve those in need of care. Further, the standards of care and expectations are rising at a much faster rate than the nurses’ ability to keep pace with; which defies the nurse to question own quality of practice. While the focus of the nursing profession as a discipline is to improve human health and healing through caring, the components of caring remain multidimensional. The discipline of nursing embodies the science which answers questions of the “why, what & how” to add to the body of knowledge and the art of the profession is represented by the nursing practice (Monti & Tingen, 1999). The purpose of this paper is to discuss this writer’s personal philosophy of nursing, the influences that are aligned with the work of Florence Nightingale, and literature reviews that support the individual lens describing nursing practice.

... Through the demonstration of these values on a daily basis, the nurse is able to not only take better care of his or her patients, but is also able to take care of his or herself. Through self-care, the nurse is able to better understand the phenomena of the client, and is able to provide better client-centered care.

A therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is outlined as a helping relationship grounded on shared respect, trust, the encouragement of having faith and hope in oneself and others, and emotional support (Pullen et al., 2010). In doing so, the nurse can establish complete satisfaction of the patients needs, whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. This relationship produces when the patient and the nurse come together in harmony and peace (Pullen et al., 2010). Efficient verbal and nonverbal communication is an essential aspect of interaction between nurse and patient – in doing this, the patient feels on par with the nurse, as an equal, rather than having no indication of what procedures are taking place (Pullen et al., 2010).

West, E., Griffith, W., Iphofen, R. (2007, April vol.16/no.2). A historical perspective on the nursing

In the field of nursing, theories and ideals change day by day. Some practices are no longer practices, theories are no longer taught, and ideals are no longer ideals. There is always a “better” idea put into the nursing field and progress is continuous. The continuous impacts have originated from pioneer researchers such as Faye Abdullah. Faye had many degrees such as her nursing certificate, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorates degrees (American Nurses Association). Her education helped her make the impact she has made with concepts that are still being used in the nursing field today. Faye had many accomplishments, but nothing like her research which later helped her transform the nursing theory and nursing education.

“The term nursing science was rarely used in the literature until the late 1950s. However, since that time there has been an increasing emphasis, one might even say a sense of urgency, regarding the development of a b...