Personal Philosophy of Nursing Essay Example for Free

Personal Philosophy of Nursing Essay Belief is the reflection of values that guides one to plan and set goals in their personal and professional Life. With this in mind, and that caring is the essence of nursing practice, my career path goals were outlined and focused on concept of education , health and care. My perspectives and beliefs about nursing as a profession have been gradually developed throughout the years by the influence of many, mentorship, education and by long years of clinical experience. Beliefs Nursing. Nurses help and care for the sick or well, and promote health with skills, expertise and knowledge. The American Nurses Association (ANA) defines nursing as â€Å"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.† We nurses are focused and educated to provide the most holistic care to individuals and family with actual and/or potential health problem. (ANA, 2009). Our commitment is to assist individuals/clients efforts to reach their optimal health potential. Client. Client can be the individual, family, group, organization or communities that have innate abilities, resources, experiences and values that guide decision-making regarding health issues.† (University of Kansas School of Nursing, 2001). Kings’ theory emphasizes the importance of client participation in the decision-making and deal with choices, alternatives and outcomes of care (cited by P arker, 2006). Nurses need to understand how individual/clients choose and accept responsibility when they are their health decision-maker. Health. Health is the client optimal state of wellness. The World Health Organization defines health as â€Å"a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.† Leininger defined health as â€Å"state of well-being that is culturally defined, valued, and practiced and reflects the ability of individuals or groups to perform their daily role activities in culturally expressed, beneficial and patterned ways (cited by Parker, 2006). The individual/ client health is intrinsic interacted with his/her environment. Environment. Newman defines environment as â€Å"all internal and external factors or influences surrounding the identified client or client system (cited by Parker, 2006).† Martha Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings proposed that the client and their environment are integral with one another in a continuous process (Blais et al, 2002). When nurses apply Rogers’ theory in their practice, they holistic focus on the person as a whole and promote and integrate care between the client and his/her environment. It is my belief that environment greatly influences a client’s health and her/his perception of health and it is in continuous and creative changes. My career goals were outlined in the perspective of changes and advancement of my profession and a more competent professional nurse. Goals Short-term. My immediate short- term goals as soon as school is over, is to be oriented as day House Supervisor in the facility where I work. It will be a cross-training position, since I am not planning to leave the clinical area anytime soon. This new position will be parallel to my actual position as telemetry charge nurse. My second goal is to finish St David HCA academy leadership classes by the end of this year. I believe that these short-term goals will pave my career path and give me the foundation to accomplish my long-term goals Long-term. I have two long-term goals that I am planning to accomplish by 2012. First, I am planning to be Austin Community College Nurse School’s clinical instructor assistant to start in January of 2010. Also, next year, I would like to apply and be accepted in a â€Å"Developmental Teaching Program† that the University Of Texas (UT), with the collaboration of St David HCA and Seton Hospital, organized to help and assist employees who are interested in advancing their education into a master’s program and be involved with teaching. Each hospital accepts fifteen qualified employees per semester and the program consists of three teaching classes at master level. Planning my career and setting up goals beyond being a bedside nurse was not an easy step. It was finalized/ concreted by the influence and support of friends and my family Critical Analysis Beliefs. My beliefs about nursing were influenced especially by my husband and by one of my lifetime friends. Both taught me that nursing is a profession that one never stops learning and learning is the only way to acquire knowledge to improve and excel as a professional. I also have an enthusiastic mentor that instructs and encourages me to expand my knowledge in other areas of nursing rather than just being a bedside nurse. My beliefs in my career, also, have been greatly influenced by my mother who continuously reminds me to always put myself in the patient’s place before any decision or judgment is done. Through it, she taught me what compassion and true care means. Besides the people mentioned above, there are many others that in one way or another influenced and shaped my beliefs about nursing. Career Choice. Nursing has been my only profession. I got my ADN diploma through Florence Nightingale Nursing School, the only England Nurse School in my country. So, once in the U.S, I went back to nursing school and got my ADN. My career choice happened long before I even finished high school. My father was very sick for a long time and very often I would go with him to the hospital for doctors’ appointments or just to the emergency room. During those times my heart would go to those sick people lying down on the ground outside the hospital waiting for an available doctor or a nurse to see them, and, most of the time it would not happen so soon. Some of these people would stay for a day or two in the heat, hungry, thirsty, dirty and in pain. Against my mother orders, (because we did not have much), I started to bring food, and water to those people and I would apply butter to their wounds to keep them wet ( I had seen the old women in the farm doing it). When I really decided to go the nurse school, I was not sure about it. I told my mother that would try it because I did not want to be anything back then. Once I started nursing school, I was totally in love with it. Indirectly, my father led me to my current career path that I feel fulfilled me as a professional. Current Career Path. I have been a nurse for six years. Since my graduation, I have been working as a telemetry nurse/charge nurse. But through these years I have been working in all med/surg floors, step-down ICU and ER. I like cardiology the most. It is a fast pace unit and can be very challenging. In this unit I am able to advise and encourage patients on health maintenance and disease prevention, and that I work with a team that together provides optimal care to those with cardiac diseases. All these years as an ADN I was comfortable as it was until two years ago, when my husband and my mentor encouraged me to advance my education at least to the BSN level. And, I am glad that I did it. The RN-BSN bridge program was essential in expanding my knowledge and therefore improved my nurse practice. Impact of RN-BSN Program on Nursing and Career The Texas Tech University health Sciences Center School of Nursing program has had a great impact in my profession and career path. Through this program I have been learning more about evidence-based practice, theories and nursing practice than I did in all those years in the ADN schools. Now, for example, when I look at a medication(s), read or do a procedure on a patient , I am more aware of the importance of research and evidence-based practice and why I (we) do things in certain order or way. â€Å"By exploring concepts such as: evidence-based practice, professional development, life-long learning, community health, nursing theories, research, mentorship, current issues facing nursing and many more I now see nursing form a larger perspective (Harmon, 2009).† This program expanded my knowledge, enhanced my practice and thus, effectively improves my patient’s outcomes. Through this program I became a stronger and more complete nurse. It taught me the discipline of nursing practice is guided by theories and models that can be applied to my daily practice. Nurse Model Jean Watsons theory of caring has profound impact in the practice of nursing. Caring is central to nursing; it is the central focus of practice. Foster, 2008 states that †¦Ã¢â‚¬ caring is to preserve human dignity, is to preserve humanity in systems and in society, increasingly awakening in nurses and nursing to realize they have a critical role in sustaining human caring and humanity itself, especially in instances where it is threatened.† Caring in my daily nurse practice underlies human values and beliefs that are essential in an individual/client or/and family basic needs. â€Å"The nursing response is a specific expression of caring nurturance to sustain and enhance the ‘other’ as he or she lives caring and grows in caring in the situation of concern (Buldin, 2005).† Through the theory of caring, I am more sensitive to express feeling of care and allow my clients, family and/or coworkers to express their own feeling of care. â€Å"Nursing can expand its existing role, continuing to make contributions to health care within the modern model by developing its foundational caring healing and health strengths that have always been present on the margin (Cara, 2003).† Caring is not a momentum, but a personal response. Conclusion My beliefs regarding the nursing profession and my goals were paved by people that continue and will continue to greatly and positively influence my personal and professional values. Through this career patch, caring is my daily vision and my response to those that come to my care. References American Nurses Association, 2009. Considering Nursing? Retrieved March 28, 2009 from http://www.nursingworld.org/EspeciallyForYou/StudentNurses.aspx American Nurses Association, 2009. What is Nursing? Retrieved March 28, 2009 from http://www.nursingworld.org/EspeciallyForYou/StudentNurses/WhatisNursing.aspx Blais, K.K., Hayes, S.J., Kozier,B. Erb,G., 2002. Professional Nursing Practice: Concepts and Perspectives. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Cara, C., 2003.A pragmatic View of jean Watsons’s Caring Theory. International Journal for Human Caring Vol 7(3). Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy- ttuhsc.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=9hid=5sid=91639aaf-72f3-4082-a574‘6e5a3d0caaaa%40 Buldin, S., 2005. Nursing as Caring Theory: Living Caring in Practice. Retrieved march 30, 2009 From http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezproxy.ttuhsc.edu/spb/ovidweb.cgi?S=GOPEFPHIG GD DPCDNNCGLPHPLGBLCAA00Link+Set=S.sh.15.16.46%7c12%7csl_10 Foster, L. R., 2007. Tribute to the Theorist. Retrieved March 30, 2009 from http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezproxy.ttuhsc.edu/spb/ovidweb.cgi?S=GOPEFPHIG GDDPCDNNCGLPHPLGBLCAA00Link+Set=S.sh.15.16.18%7c3%7csl_10 University of Kansas School of Nursing, 2001. Mission, Philosophy, Organizing Framework, and Curricular Threads. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from http://www2.kumc.edu/son/vorientation/concept.html Harmon, V., (2009, Spring). Baccalaureate Nursing practice Course Syllabus: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing Undergraduate Program Philosophy. Retrieved March 18, 2009 from http:webtc6.ttuhsc.edu

Alexander The Great Essay -- essays research papers

Alexander the Great is, arguably, the most famous secular figure in history. His magnetism in life was rivaled only by his magnetism in death, and the story of his career has evoked vastly different interpretations in his age and ours. Young romantic hero or megalomaniac villain? Alexander III of Macedon conquered all who stood before him, but usually in order to free the lower class. He did more to spread the Hellenistic culture than anyone before or after him. My credibility comes from much studying of his lifestyle, and analysis of many contradicting biographies. With this speech, I hope to display to you most of his feats and battles, as well as the vast quantity of folklore that surrounds his life. Alexander, was born on or around July 20, 356 BCE, in Pella. The exact date may have been created after the fact to match the date of the burning of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. His parents were Philip II of Macedon and Olympias, who descended from Gods according to myth. At 13, Aristotle was hired to tutor Alexander. Under Aristotle, Alexander learned philosophy, ethics, politics, and healing. The two later became estranged, due to their difference of opinion on the status of foreginers; Aristotle saw them as barbarians, while Alexander sought to merge Macedonians and foreigners. Tale of Bucephalus: At 14 Alexander surprised all including his father by mounting an untamable horse named Bucephalus. Alexander would later name a city after the site where his horse died in battle. 340 BC: Philip II traveled to Byzantium to battle rebels, leaving 16yr old Alexander in charge as Prince Regent. While away, the Maedi, a north Macedonia tribe, revolted. Alexander traveled there, put down the revolt, captured the city and renamed it Alexandropolis. At the age of 19, Philip II was assassinated. Alexander was a boy king. Cities like Athens and Thebes had pledged allegiance to Philip II, but were not sure if they wanted to do the same for a 19 year old boy. On top of that, barbarians to the north threatened to invade. Alexander drove the barbarians north of the Danube, then focused on Thebes. He marched to the city, and offered them one final chance to obey him. They refused, and he went on to march into the city and kill nearly everyone. Athens later decided to align with Alexander. 334 BC: Alexander travels to Asia Minor. He begins freeing ... ... they took the long way home, with random stops for Alexander to either conquer or debate Indian philosophers. At one of these stops, a fierce tribe, the Malli, wounded him in the ribcage severely. In 324 B.C.E., Alexander furthered his mission to assimilate Macedonian and Persian cultures when he arranged thousands of marriages between the Greek soldiers and Persian women in Susa. Alexander himself took a second wife, Stateira, one of Darius' daughters. The next year, Alexander traveled with his men to Babylon despite numerous threatening omens. The omens were so frequent and ominous that Alexander feared that he had fallen out of favor with the gods. He died of a fever on June 10, 323 BC. Though Alexander died suddenly, and at the age of 33, he left behind a tremendous legacy. Alexander spread the Hellenistic culture far and wide, providing the backbone for culture in the western hemisphere as we know it today. He paved the way for Christianity as well. From the fulfillment of the Gordian knot legend, to the dignified way he conquered countries, Alexander the Great ensured his place in history as one of, if not the greatest ruler of all time.

Tourism in Nepal

Nepal is one of the most desired tourist destination of all time. Due to these cultural norms and values, Nepal is a most profitable destination for tourism industry. Annually, the visitors arriving in Nepal have their varied purposes and they are almost always enthusiastic about spending their holidays in Nepal’s touristic sites and they have to be encouraged to do so through extensive marketing efforts by Nepal Tourism Board.Furthermore, Nepal’s traditional cultural values can also be used for the poverty alleviation thorough eco-tourism, religious tourism and destination tourism and this has been included in the tourism marketing strategy of NTB. At present, apart from the obvious problem of negative media coverage, Nepal seriously lacks credible market research as to why exactly its tourism industry is under-performing and what aspects of product need attention.Inappropriate marketing expenses that are hard to track on the result on productivity could be being made and they need to be eliminated to attract appropriate techniques for the marketing. Regular surveys of departing visitors are not undertaken, so the country cannot gauge their levels of satisfaction, unsatisfied wants, spending or current propensity to return. Information on potential and in existing markets is only beginning to be gathered and marketing partnerships with the travel trade in these markets are lacking.However, some small attempts have been taken by the NTB and other concerned private sectors about the research on tourism industry of Nepal which is not a sufficient attempt in this business. Tourism is a traditional activity of the human being that is related with the traveling and it is naturally a human character. People desire change and travel provides the pleasure and leisure. Tourism is the movement of people from one place to another for the purpose of getting satisfaction.The most important assets of a country are cultural norms and values that reflect peopleâ €™s social pattern that can be used for tourism industry in Nepal. The main objective of this project report is to analyze and discuss about the strategy of Nepal for tourism marketing promotion. FoH/TU guidelines are followed to complete this report. Some methodologies such as survey, collecting relevant data, comparative studies and analysis are used and recommendations are presented as need of FoH/TU.

Standardized Test Scores in Colleges Essay

Standardized Test Scores in Colleges People are born with different talents and it usually takes time and care to discover the one hidden within each child. For many kids, their talent comes out in a natural way as the child grows up. Some gifts are more visible than others and are easily recognizable. For instance, a child with a good voice and ability to sing could easily be noticed. But another one might have the ability to solve complicated math puzzles and this may not be readily evident until and unless the child comes across an opportunity to express this talent. Unfortunately, most of the standardized test scores in colleges are aimed at evaluating only the academic skills of the student. The other skills that a student possesses are not taken into consideration. There are no comprehensive methods and tests available for proper evaluation of some other skills that students possess. Our inability to recognize the different talents that humans have and to formulate the right kind of tests to discover them in students, has resulted in scores of students having their true potential unrealized. This is a sad situation, as we are wasting precious human resources. There could be so many Einsteins, Bohrs, Beethovens and Mozarts among our student community who may go unrecognized just because we have failed to come up with the right tests to detect their talents. They would also go through life as losers because they would not be able to fit into the mundane routine that so many other excel at. The others would be so successful at going through a monotonous life that they would have a successful career while these talented individuals would limp through life working on low-paid posts.