Values and Insights in Nursing Practice

There are various personal values and beliefs in nursing, including autonomy, social justice, human dignity, honesty, and altruism. Autonomy means the ability of a nurse to determine the components of a patient’s care without necessarily having to consult other providers to make a decision. Social justice is one of the nursing values that views everyone in the care as equal and deserving of equal rights and opportunities. Human dignity helps nurses recognize that human beings are special and deserve to be valued and respected during treatment. Honesty is a value that requires nurses to be truthful and disclose to patients everything relating to care. Altruism is a value that motivates nurses to protect patients’ dignity and provide them with safe care.

One of the assumptions I had about psychiatric nursing nurse practitioners have full understanding of all mental health issues. Little did I know that they are daily learners and that they do not have everything at their fingertips. I also thought that there is a standardized way of treating mental health issues in all patients. Later on, I came to realize that each patient is unique and that the method of treatment is unique to each patient. I had an assumption that psychiatric nurse practitioners have magical instincts and that they are never wrong. I later came to realize that although their instincts are correct most of the time, they too make mistakes. As such, there is need to follow the various diagnosis approaches and not always depend on their instincts.

Values and Insights in Nursing Practice

The assumption I had about patients is that they are not literate and should believe everything nurses tell them. In other words, I thought that psychiatric nurse practitioners are all-knowing and that patients are always ready to receive what they are told. However, I came to realize that patients, too, have rights and can sometimes disagree with their providers regarding health. The assumption I had about the world is that it is not possible to fully comprehend where it is going or where it comes from. In other words, the world is complicated and cannot be fully conceptualized.

One of the greatest philosophies in my profession is the desire to provide specialized care to every patient I come across instead of just treating their illnesses. I have a genuine desire to make patients feel comfortable, respected, and secure in my care. This greatly influences my practice as I always have to ensure that my care services provide comfort and that I offer the services with dexterity. The other philosophy I hold so dear in my practice is that I usually engage in research so that the approaches I use when providing patient care are evidence-based.

I engage in some concepts during my practice. Some of the concepts include communication, accountability, advocacy, assessment, caring intervention, clinical decision-making, collaboration, critical thinking, evidence-based practice, and safety. The concepts that rise up as priorities in my nursing practice are communication, safety, collaboration, and evidence-based practice. Other concepts such as advocacy, collaboration, and accountability are secondary because care would still be provided without them. APA