Personal Worldview and Nursing Theory - Essay Sample

Introduction

By definition, worldview refers to a person's perception of their reality and the working of the nursing world, which is responsible for their way of thinking and being. Undoubtedly, each nurse has their own view which shapes their assumptions, values, and beliefs and hence their understanding of the metaparadigms of their discipline. The said assumptions can be considered as the notions or facts that one believes to be true while values are the standards or principles of one's behavior or judgment of what is crucial in life. On the other hand, beliefs can be defined as the descriptions and definitions of metaparadigm concepts from a personal point of view. These perspectives inspire an individual's decisions and behaviors and therefore their philosophy as well. As such, in the following paper, I am going to describe my personal worldview including the religious, spiritual and cultural elements that I think most influence my personal philosophy of practice and attitude towards patient care. Also, I will demonstrate how this personal philosophy relates to nursing theory and how the theory reinforces my approach to care. Further, I will explain how my worldview and the nursing theory will assist me in further developing my future practice.

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As indicated earlier, my personal worldview is an explanation of my perception of life through the beliefs, assumptions, and values I hold in response to the world. Regarding religion, I have always believed in the existence of only one God who created all that is in the world today. It is also my belief that there are numerous courses leading to the same creator and that before the eyes of God, all paths leading to Him are honorable and respectable. It is, therefore, the responsibility of every human to emulate God's example and treat all religions with the respect they deserve. According to what I believe in, human beings are in the world in preparation for spending eternity with their creator through the lessons learned on a day-to-day basis. Every human is born with a soul which implies that we all have an internal understanding of God our creator. Therefore, as a nurse, when one honors the religion of others, it is easier for them to provide better and unbiased care.

Undeniably, spirituality is a fundamental element that significantly influences the practice and attitude of a nurse towards patient care. According to Mcmunn (2018), in relation to patient care, spirituality entails serving a person as a whole. In other terms, spiritual care focuses on an individual's spiritual, emotional, physical and social wellbeing. Therefore, as a nurse, I believe that spirituality in my practice comprises the care activities that I offer with the aim of bringing well-being, function, and quality of life to my patients. Based on the fact that people are spiritual, physical and emotional beings, I believe that honoring the spirituality of an individual enhances one's ability to care for them. As noted by Murphy and Walker (2013), the management of the modern day's health care framework often appears to stress more on profitability rather than the essential well being of humans as the ultimate goal. Moreover, a huge push to have more done with less seems to be in existence in the nursing world. Therefore, it is my belief that when it comes to spiritual care, three major challenges can be identified. Firstly, one should keep themselves spiritually fit and secondly, nurses should try helping those around them also to remain optimistic. Thirdly, regardless of time constrictions, nurses have the responsibility of trying to provide their patients with the necessary physical and spiritual care (Alligood, 2017).

Additionally, my personal philosophy as a nurse is also influenced by the cultural element of my worldview. I strongly believe that in an increasingly multicultural and diverse society, nurses are expected to provide patients with effective care regardless of their cultural background. In my view, the cultural sensitivity which is a critical aspect of the nursing practice is grounded on the awareness of the existence of differences between people without assigning a value to them. Precisely, neither should one always view cultural differences negatively nor should they insist on total assimilation into the dominant culture. Importantly, this is in line with the patient-centric and patient advocacy nursing mission as well as the key ethical responsibility to respect every patient's rights and dignity (Rieg et al., 2017). Again, I believe that in a broader sense, cultural sensitivity includes ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and gender in addition to culture. Admittedly, all these aspects can have an influence on a nurse's personal philosophy of practice and attitude towards patient care. It is imperative that every nurse tries to shift their viewpoints to acknowledge that what seems normal in their perspective may be totally an extraordinary behavior in a different culture (Sprinks, 2014).

Furthermore, a nursing theory that is most in line with my personal philosophy of nursing is the Neuman Systems Model of Nursing (NSM). This theory stresses a holistic approach that focuses on the promotion of health, wellness maintenance as well as the management and prevention of stressors identified as ill health determinates (Tk & Chandran, 2017). The Neuman Systems Model has several similarities with my personal philosophy of practice and approach to patient care. First, the theory emphasizes a wellness orientation, holism as well as client motivation and perception (Butts & Rich, 2013). According to Neuman, nursing is an exceptional profession whose primary focus is on the person as a whole together with the variables affecting people's response to stressors (Tk & Chandran, 2017). In the same manner, I personally define nursing as taking care of patients as a whole while making the best use of my knowledge to achieve this. Second, the Neuman Systems Model places more emphasis on the provision of the necessary assistance by nurses to help their clients attain a state of wellness (Sitzman, 2017). Neuman maintains that health is the degree of client wellness which clearly captures and puts together all my thoughts about nursing and healthcare. Thus, according to the theory, the wellness of a client is a priority in the nursing practice. Similarly, I believe that the wellness of my patients can be achieved by being caring and compassionate. Again, the taking care is holistic and takes into account the emotional, physical and spiritual aspect of the patients in line with the Neuman Systems Model.

Principally, the Neuman Systems Model reinforces my approach to care in a number of ways. Apparently, my approach to care is that it should be client focused and the best interest of the client should always be at its heart. This approach is reinforced by Neuman's theory by insisting on the client's best interest as a priority (Cetinkaya 2013; Butts & Rich, 2013). For example, during my past nursing practice, I ones was faced with an issue in which I had to give care to a boy who had a combination of learning disabilities, epilepsy and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. However, by applying my worldview and the Neuman Systems Model, I was able to resolve the issue. Specifically, the theory helped me in the identification and planning of appropriate intervention strategies. Since the model considers nursing to be mainly concerned with the variables that influence an individual's response to stressors, I was able to define my client's care through how these variables influenced him before being referred to me. Consequently, I noted that the boy's sociocultural, psychological, physiological, spiritual and developmental variables involved his sister and the separated parents.

Based on my worldview, I believed that it was my responsibility to provide the boy with care activities to bring him function, well-being and improve his life quality. Similarly, according to Neuman's theory, I was required to keep my patient dynamic and safe through the protection of the five variables by both resistance and lines of defence (Alligood, 2017). Therefore, by applying Neuman System Model, I was able to identify my patient's needs which included altered sleep patterns, lack of social support, as well as the perception of events in his life and engagement changes. As a result, I was able to address these issues in my suggested care plan by applying primary, secondary and tertiary prevention interventions which turned out to be a success. In essence, the primary prevention involved the provision of information about support for the patient's family and education programmes. The secondary prevention that I adopted involved initiating and developing a short-term safety plan, which I prepared in collaboration with the boy, his mother and some staff members of the boy's school. Finally, the tertiary prevention emphasized a continuous individual and group support system.

Undoubtedly, my worldview and the Neuman System Model will assist me in further developing my future practice. As indicated earlier my personal worldview includes a combination of religious, spiritual and cultural elements which ultimately affect my practice and attitude towards patient care. As such, my worldview of what comprises spiritual care will assist me in incorporating spiritual and religious guidance in my future practice, especially during traumatic life events including healthcare crises, death or illness. Besides, based on my worldview, I will ensure that my future practice focuses on the holistic care of patients while taking care of all the religious, spiritual and cultural aspects involved. Additionally, the Neuman System Model will be a useful framework for my future nursing practice due to its wide applicability in knowledge synthesis. By applying the theory to my future practice, I will be able to examine the response of my patients to stressors in relation to the five variables. Moreover, to further develop my future practice, I will ensure that my care activities are directed to the client while using the model to understand how prevention interventions at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels can be used to solve problems.

Conclusion

Conclusively, as demonstrated herein, one's personal philosophy is influenced by their personal worldview which includes religious, spiritual and cultural elements. Also, it has been clear that the Neuman System Model is a crucial theory which can be applied to reinforce one's approach to care and to resolve issues encountered in the practice. Additionally, as far as the evidence goes, the Neuman System Model and an individual's worldview can play a critical role in further developing ones future practice by influencing how one treats others regardless of their differences such as religion and culture.

References

Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing Theorists and Their Work-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I. I. (2016). Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.

Butts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (2013). Philosophies and theories for advanced nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Cetinkaya, B., Azak, A., & Dundar, S. A. (2013). Nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 31(1), 5.

Mcmunn, V. (2018). Taking a cervical sample: A reflection on good practice. Practice Nursing, 29(1), 17-21. doi:10.12968/pnur.2018.29.1.17

Murphy, L., & Walker, M. (2013). Spirit-Guided Care. Journal of Christian Nursing, 30(3), 153-154. doi:10.1097/cnj.0b013e31829c408e

Rieg, L. S., N...