NUR 513 Worldview and Nursing Process Personal Statement

Sample Answer

As a core of the healthcare delivery system, nurses develop and articulate their worldviews to navigate their roles and responsibilities and understand their patients and health population. Worldviews help nurses to offer culturally sensitive care, especially in a highly diverse healthcare system.

Nurses integrate their worldviews with appropriate nursing theories to implement the nursing process for different patients (Brewington et al., 2020). As nurses reflect on their past and experiences, their worldviews and application of appropriate nursing theories become important in defining and shaping their actions and decisions. The purpose of this essay is to describe my worldview and nursing theory that influence my practice.

Personal Worldview

Individuals develop worldviews influenced by different aspects of their lives; from beliefs, assumptions, and values. People interpret and assign meaning to their world through these aspects. A person’s worldview is essential in shaping their practice philosophy and approach to care, especially in working with patients from diverse backgrounds due to the diversity of cultures, practices, and spiritual influence.

My worldview is rooted in Christianity and humanism. My faith and belief in God as a Christian and consideration of the common good based on philosophical teachings like utilitarianism and virtue ethics shape my worldview. I believe that God created man in His image to show His goodness to others. I consider my patients as unique based on their creation as human beings who deserve inherent dignity and respect.

I strive to do my best and care for them through the Christian and inherent values like compassion, love, and self-sacrifice. These values shape and define my interactions and relationships with patients, their families, and health populations (Nunnery, 2019).

My culture instills in me service-focused care. It also lays a robust foundation for holistic care by considering patients as individuals with a multifaceted life comprising spiritual, emotional, psychological, and physical aspects.

These perspectives are essential in offering support and considering the patients as part of the whole Christian community (Wei et al., 2020). I consider my patients and their families as the larger community that requires support and integration to help deliver holistic care based on their needs and concerns.

Utilitarianism and virtue ethics implore me to do well for the greater common benefit of the majority knowing that one receives what they give and can only give what they possess through their character. My role as a nurse is to ensure that I practice to the best level of my skills and knowledge in maintaining and restoring lives. Guiding my patients in spiritual care and other aspects of their care plans is essential for the overall attainment of quality care.

Nursing Theory

Nursing theories allow nurses to develop care plans that meet patient needs and concerns, especially holistic care. The nursing theory that aligns with my Christian and humanistic worldview is Jean Watson’s holistic caring theory. At the core of this theory is the importance of transpersonal relationships and caring in the healing process.

The theory presents caring as the foundation of effective and efficient nursing practice, emphasizing that nurses should implement the curative factors in their individualized plans (Watson et al., 2020). The theory implores nurses to express kindness and genuine concern in engaging patients, understanding their needs, and demonstrating altruistic values.

The carative factors entail developing a humanistic approach to care, instilling faith, compassion, love, and hope, and being sensitive to oneself and others. The human caring theory by Watson enforces my approach to patient-centered care by prioritizing the basic human needs in the care provision process for quality nursing care.

At the core of this theory is a focus on holistic and humanistic care. The caring theory developed by Watson emphasizes the observance of values that are similar to Christian teachings. These include compassionate care, love, empathy, kindness, and genuine concern in interactions and relationships with patients (Nunnery, 2019).

Both my worldview and nursing philosophy align with the theory based on the emphasis on hope, and faith which enhance positive healthcare provision. Watson’s theory shows that nurses and other healthcare providers can attain wellness and holistic care by focusing on shared ethical values that entail respect, justice, and integrity. These values are a core part of nursing practice as they help nurses and other providers make ethical decisions.

Watson emphasizes teaching and learning for both nurses and patients, which are similar to the Christian culture that integrates support and community living (Mudd et al., 2020). Offering sufficient patient support entails providing health education to improve their understanding of health conditions and instilling behavioral changes that promote healthy behaviors.

The similarities between the nursing theory and my Christian and humanism worldview illustrate the importance of shared humanity and care for others which are critical to attaining nursing practice outcomes.

Practice Example

The emergence of pandemics and epidemics presents practical challenges for nurses due to the rise in care demand amidst limited resources. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the highest level of unpredictability in clinical settings.

In the early stages of the pandemic, nurses as frontline care providers widely contracted the disease with their health being at stake because of limited knowledge about the epidemiology of COVID-19 at that time (Brewington et al., 2020). If such unpredictability continues, many people are less likely to pursue nursing leading to a supply shortage that exacerbates the current one.

My worldview can assist in addressing the issue since the focus is ensuring the survival of human beings through the provision of patient-centered care. Nurses should be ready and willing to save lives even when in difficult situations like handling life-threatening novel diseases like COVID-19.

Again, the theory of human caring offers a solution to dealing with strange conditions since it provides a chance for nurses to be optimistic when implementing evidence-based scientific research and also a belief in miraculous healing (Dhandapani et al., 2020).

For instance, the emergence of COVID-19 and its declaration as a health emergency led to several research efforts to develop vaccines. The world hoped that a vaccine would be developed to reduce or mitigate the dangers of the condition.

Using my Worldview and Nursing Theory in Future Practice

My Christian and humanistic worldview and Watson’s caring theory will impact my future practice as a nurse in different yet fundamental ways. I will focus on patient-centered care that addresses core physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and concerns.

Patient-centered care improves the overall wellness and well-being of patients and increases satisfaction in one’s nursing practice (Mlambo et al., 2021). Both my worldview and nursing theory emphasize healing as a core part of a patient’s physical needs. The implication is that based on these two perspectives, one can uphold ethical values in making decisions and developing holistic care plans.

Watson’s model advances learning and teaching, imploring one to continue professional development and growth to improve competence by applying current trends (Chen et al., 2020). Christian values like faith and love reinforce holistic and patient-centered care for nurses.

Therefore, practicing in alignment with the values and principles of the two concepts will improve the fulfillment of my career leading to exceptional development as a healthcare provider.

Conclusion

Worldviews and nursing theories shape and define one’s nursing practice and professional development. My worldview has been shaped by Christian teachings and beliefs as well as humanism based on virtue ethics and utilitarianism. The implication is that as a nurse, my worldview and nursing theory like Jean Watson’s caring model, are essential to overall care delivery, especially evidence-based and patient-centered holistic care.

References

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• Chen, S., Lai, Y., & Tsay, S. (2020). Nursing perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19. Journal
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• Dhandapani, M., & L., G. (2020). Envisioning nursing profession grounded on advanced nursing
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• Mlambo, M., Silén, C., & McGrath, C. (2021). Lifelong learning and nurses’ continuing
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• Mudd, A., Feo, R., Conroy, T., & Kitson, A. (2020). Where and how does fundamental care fit
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• Nunnery, R. K. (2019). Advancing your career Concepts of professional nursing. FA Davis.
  Watson, J., & Woodward, T. K. (2020). Jean Watson’s theory of human caring. SAGE
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  Wei, H., Fazzone, P. A., Sitzman, K., & Hardin, S. R. (2019). The Current Intervention Studies
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