The Fabula Rasa

The American Nurses Association defines nursing as "the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations."   While this is nursing at its basic, the scope of nursing practice is much more than following policy and procedures to promote health.  Nursing involves your knowledge of medical practices, time management, being an advocate, compassion and caring, respect, honor, honesty, patient privacy and the ability to provide safe patient centered care.  Using what a nurse represents and my own personal value system, following a nursing career was a logical choice for me.  To follow this path, a person must choose, without coercion, to care and help others.  Others who chose to follow nursing share similar beliefs and values.

The World Health Organization defined health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."  There are two spheres of health, the physical and mental.  Physical health means the body operating at optimum level whether with or without disease condition.  People seek physical well being through lifestyle changes, fitness, proper nutrition, weight management, abstaining from substance abuse including alcohol, proper sexual health, hygiene, and getting restful sleep.  Mental health appertains to a person's cognitive and emotional well being.  It also includes a person's  ability to take pleasure in life and have balance, able to recover from adversity, to adapt and be flexible, feel safe and secure, and fulfill your potential.

Nurses not only need to have the ability to adapt to situations,  the knowledge of diseases and disease process is vital in helping the patient travel along the path toward their best health.  Application of classroom knowledge, skills, and experience in the clinical setting is an important part of being a nurse.  Being able to pass an exam is the first step, being successful in implementing safe patient centered care is the ultimate goal.  People have a variety of personalities, thus, proper bedside manners and communication skills are a must.  A nurse will have multiple patients, being able to prioritize and have effective time management skills will smooth the road to providing care.

Compassion, empathy and caring are aspects of humanity that nurses use with patients and their families, caring for the patient's health and both parties' emotional needs.  All humans, regardless of age, sex, gender, race, or ethnicity deserve respect, honesty, privacy and advocacy.  All health care professionals must work together to maintain a patient's needs and rights.  If these professionals such as doctors, nurses, therapists, dieticians, social workers and so forth do not work in harmony, the patient will not receive the best care they need and deserve.

Nurses must understand the current health care system and organization.  Currently, health care is expensive, making insurance necessary but it is not available to everyone.  Health care trends change over time, reflecting the changing needs of society.  We must concentrate on population wellness while providing acute care.  There must be an encouragement of health screenings and early interventions, such as education, to lessen the number of patients exhibiting these conditions and illnesses.  Nurses must perform health promotion but there is a vast shortage of nurses needed to provide care.  This shortage will continue to grow as the baby boomer generation of nurses approach retirement.  Nurses must pool together values, idealism, and knowledge into our vocation and above all, apply them until the next generation of nurses arrive.

As the next graduating class of nurses, we must all gather our knowledge, beliefs, and values  into our clinical sites and apply them.  We must all incorporate the essence of a nurse and characteristics to be well respected by our patients, colleagues, healthcare providers, and be successful in our careers.  Each nurse must hold on to their personal philosophy throughout their careers and never lose sight of it.