Nursing philosophy pivots on the individual, the health care environment, health and illness, and nursing. According to Salsberry, (1994, p. 11), "A philosophy of nursing is a guide or framework for the discipline." Gortner (1990) further states, "Nursing philosophy represents the belief system of the profession" (Salsberry, 1994, p. 11). A nurse's philosophy of nursing is what guides her when she is making decisions about the care of her patients, and it incorporates her ethics, her reasons for being a nurse, what she hopes to accomplish in her nursing, and how she believes she can best accomplish her objectives. A U.K. nursing student reflects that when she decided to become a nurse, she was "attracted to a job that involved talking to people, making them more comfortable and helping them get better" (McCormack, 2007). Similarly, every nurse needs to know why she has chosen nursing as a profession and what her beliefs are with respect to health care in general, health and illness, and her patients and her nursing approach in particular.
The nurse as an individual brings her own background, ethics, skills, beliefs, and training to her job, and as such she is the unique product of multiple factors. Just like individuals in other professions, nurses have differing talents and skills that should be taken into consideration both in their choice of position and in their nursing philosophy. Some nurses are highly skilled at making decisions under pressure, while others are adept at persuading recalcitrant patients to take their medicine or do their exercises. Still others excel at teamwork or diagnostic activities. Whatever the nurse's particular strengths, she needs to be aware of them and make them part of her nursing philosophy, because innate strengths are an indication of the direction an individual is meant to pursue. It is in that direction that she will find and fulfill her passion and enjoy the greatest ...