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Personal Nursing Philosophy

Kassandra L Glenn

Delaware Technical and Community College

NUR300-601: RN to BSN Transition

Mrs. Tina Shukla

October 8, 2023
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Personal Nursing Philosophy

When looking at my personal nursing philosophy, I believe that to be a good nurse you

must be self-aware and know where you stand in all aspects of both your profession and

personal, as well as of where you can improve. When referencing how I believe nursing should

look like I look to Martha Rogers, the science of unitary human being theory is an excellent

representation of what I believe nursing should entail and it is what I practice as a nurse. In

this theory, Rogers envisioned human beings as a system stated that each human is to be

considered as “unitary,” not thought of in isolation, from their environment (Allard, 1998). It

is believed that there is a connection between human beings and their surroundings by

energy fields. As a nurse it is our task when caring for patients to promote balance and

harmony between the individual and their environment, as well as your own (Gaines, 2023).

I have always believed that our environment has a huge factor in our overall well-being as

humans and therefore there should be a balance between both. This unbalance between

human being and environment is especially seen in the mental health field. Overall, I believe

that you must maintain that balance between you, the human being, and environment to

have a healthy mind and live a healthy life. We as nurses should not only be practicing this

theory, but also educating our patients on the importance of maintaining this balance, as

high stress levels are a risk factor to many illnesses. With that said, in this paper I will discuss

my personal beliefs related to personal wellness, lifelong learning, conflict management and

leadership, and QSEN competencies as well as how they relate to my own nursing theory.

First and most important, personal wellness is the active process in achieving health. It is

broken down into five categories: physical, spiritual, social, emotional, and intellectual. While
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overall I believe that I prioritize my personal wellness, I tend to find myself going through

phases and when I get stressed out or feeling of not having enough time, I cut from the

personal wellness. At home I am a single mother and my kids’ father is deployed, so

maintaining a balance in between all of the five categories is a must. Whenever I am stressed, I

cut from the physical category first. My goal to maintain myself physically is to do my 2-mile

evening walks with my children, drink more water, make sure that I eat throughout the day,

decrease my caffeine intake, meal prep my meals, and stay on top of my vitamin routine. When

it comes to spirituality, I believe that I am successful, for the most part, in this category. I

believe that I was placed on this earth to help others, I can see this through my work as a nurse.

I do believe when I am more stressed, that my spiritual aspect does get affected. I would like to

volunteer; I would also like to journal, pray more, and connect with nature more to allow for

more inner peace. My social category also tends to take a hit whenever I am stressed. The

feeling of not having enough time cuts away from my social wellbeing. Most of the time when I

am not working, I am either stuck cleaning, completing schoolwork, or running errands.

Therefore, my goal in maintaining my social aspect is to set time aside for weekly game nights

with my children, spend more time with my sister and friends. Moving on to emotional, I

believe that I do have a good sense of self. I know when I am going through rough times and try

to intervene, such as now. I also feel as if I have pretty good control of my emotions. I would

like to journal more to help me self-evaluate where I am at and where I would like to be

emotionally. For the final category, intellectual, this again is another area where I believe that I

am maintaining. I love to learn, and I always stride to gain as much knowledge as possible. My

goals for maintaining my intellectual is to take a refresher course in Spanish, learn some Haitian
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Creole, continue on to receiving my nurse practitioner’s degree, and going a research

committee. When it comes to personal wellness, it is a constant working process, as there are

always areas where you can grow. Personal wellness is important; like what you hear before

flights, you must take care of yourself to be able to help others. While personal wellness tends

to get overlooked quite often, it is one of the most important aspects that we must maintain.

When I think of lifelong learning, I think of individuals who are continuously learning and

evolving either professionally or personally. Lifelong learning, whether it is for personal or

professional reasons, is essential for the ever-changing world we live in. In today’s world, every

day new technologies and practices come into play, and it is up to us, as individuals, to

participate in lifelong learning to stay up to date; thus, making lifelong learning an essential part

of growth as an individual. My previous learning experiences had helped me learn and grow as

a nurse. Not only did I pull in what I had learned throughout seeking my associates in nursing, I

believe that I also take the education that I had received in my previous degree, for teaching,

into my nursing practice as well. The classes that I had taken for my early education degree

helped me to gain skills essential to being an effective teacher. I see how I pull the information

that I had learned in my previous classes for teaching to better educate my patients. Currently, I

am practicing lifelong learning by continuing my education and seeking my bachelor’s in

nursing. I know that in receiving my bachelor’s in nursing, I would gain knowledge that would

help prepare me to improve my nursing practice, improving patient outcomes. On the other

hand, I believe that by receiving my bachelor’s in nursing I would then open myself up to more

opportunities, such as leadership. I have always transitioned into a leadership position in all of

my previous jobs, so I find it fitting to continue my learning so that I am more marketable when
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applying for leadership positions within the hospital. Not only does receiving my bachelor’s in

nursing open up more opportunities, but I am also an employee at a magnet hospital, and it is

required for me to complete my bachelor’s in nursing within three years to keep employment.

My plan after I receive my bachelor’s in nursing is to continue to my nurse practitioner’s

degree. Overall, I believe to become successful at your career, even life in general, an individual

must practice lifelong learning. I have also said that you can either stay stagnate or you can

evolve. I choose to evolve, and to evolve I must commit myself to lifelong learning. My personal

lifelong learning journey has led me to where I am now today and continues to lead me to what

lies ahead in my future.

When it comes to conflict management, it is important to understand that each

individual handle conflict differently. Understanding that each individual has their own

personality, communication style, and ways to deal with conflict is essential to effectively

manage conflict. When I assessed my personality style, I received got the architect, INTJ-A,

meaning that I am imaginative, a strategic thinker, and a planner. My characteristics included

being introverted, which means that we prefer a few deep and meaningful connections, and I

am drawn to calmer environments. Next, I received judging, meaning that I am decisive,

thorough, organized, and value clarity/predictability/ and closure. Third was intuitive, meaning

that I am imaginative, open-minded, and curious. Intuitive individuals tend to focus on hidden

meanings and future possibilities. The next category is thinking which tends to focus on

rationality, dismissing emotion in support of logic. The final characteristic I received was

assertive, meaning that we are self-assured, even-tempered, and resistant to stress. I was

impressed to see how well this personality test accurately defined me. When communicating, I
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tend to be more direct, focused on the objective, all while being reserved (Free Personality

Test, 2023). When managing conflict, one needs to recognize that individuals tend to fall into

one of five categories. These categories are as follows: competing, accommodating,

compromising, collaborating, and avoiding (Alarcon, 2020). I fell into the avoidance category,

individuals who tend to ignore conflict, leaving it all unresolved. However, I stride to recognize

my reactions and emotions and transition myself to more of a collaborating conflict

management style. The collaborating style is the gold-star conflict management style as it

allows for all parties to work through the issue together allowing for all to be satisfied.

Extroverted-feeling-judging personality types tend to lean toward the collaborating conflict

management style (Alarcon, 2020). Having both a collaborating conflict management style and

being able to act in a mediator position is an important characteristic to gain to become a

successful leader. In addition to managing conflict, leaders also need to be inspirational, a team

promoter, decisive, humble, and performance oriented (The American Association of Colleges

of Nursing, n.d.). It is important to be self-aware of your personality type, communication style,

and conflict management; therefore, to effectively be a leader and able to resolve conflict in a

manner that is suitable for all.

When addressing the quality and safety of the healthcare system, as nurses we refer to

Quality and safety Education for Nurses (QSEN). QSEN addresses both quality and safety, while

educating nurses on ways to improve the healthcare system. QSEN consists of five

competencies: patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice,

quality improvement, safety, and informatics (QSEN, 2022). Patient-centered care addresses

that care should be compassionate and culturally sensitive, while also addressing the client’s
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psychological, physiological, sociological, and spiritual needs (ATI Nursing , 2019). Patient

centered care is critical, just as Martha Rodgers stated we must think of individuals as a

“unitary” system. Therefore, to be successful at treating our patients we must address all areas

of need. Next there is teamwork and collaboration, which consist of delivering care in a

multidisciplinary manner, communicating among healthcare members to achieve positive

patient outcomes (ATI Nursing , 2019). Teamwork and collaboration is the at most important

competency, as we can see the negative impacts when it is not accurately done. I honestly

believe that our patients’ lives depend on good teamwork and communication, as without it we

will be unsuccessful at meeting all needs of the patient. Next, evidence-based practice which

consist of the use of current research from credible sources to base clinical judgement and

patient care (ATI Nursing , 2019). As nurses, it is critical that we stay up to date on recent

research, as the hospital system is constantly changing to improve the health of our patients. In

this competency, this is where us as nurses must practice lifelong learning. The fourth

competency is quality improvement, which is the organizational process that develops and

implements a plan that improves healthcare services to better meet the needs of the patient

(ATI Nursing , 2019). Quality improvement is important; these plans that are put in place are

there to prevent tragic events or harm to the patient or others. The final competency is safety

and informatics which addresses how to minimize risk factors that could cause harm, to patient

or self, while providing quality care; while informatics consists of the use of information

technology for communication and data collection to better support clinical making decisions

(ATI Nursing , 2019). We can see how important upholding the QSEN competencies are in
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guaranteeing patient safety. We also seen how important it is to have effective collaboration

between healthcare workers.

In conclusion, as I stride to be a good nurse, I chose to take a lesson from Martha

Rogers and the science of unitary human being theory. Allowing myself to think of

individuals as a “unitary,” not thought of in isolation, from their environment (Allard, 1998).

The unitary human being theory is not only for our patients, but also important to apply it to

ourselves as well when looking at our own personal wellness, lifelong learning, how we

manage conflict and leadership, and nursing practices (QSEN).

References

Alarcon, E. (2020, January 17). The Intersection and Impact of Personality Type and Conflict

Management Style. Retrieved from Mediate: https://www.mediate.com/the-intersection-and-

impact-of-personality-type-and-conflict-management-style/

Allard, N. (1998). The Discovery of Martha Rogers' model. Retrieved from National Library of Medicine:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9708164/

ATI Nursing . (2019). Nursing Leadership and Management.

Free Personality Test. (2023). Retrieved from 16 Personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/free-

personality-test

Gaines, K. (2023). Nursing Theories & Theorists Explained. Retrieved from Nurse.org.

QSEN. (2022). Retrieved from QSEN: https://www.qsen.org/about-qsen

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (n.d.). Retrieved from Leadership:

https://www.aacnnursing.org/5b-tool-kit/themes/leadership