My Nursing Creed
I am many things. A woman, wife, mother, daughter, volunteer, nurse, and friend are my chief roles. Every one of these roles is rewarding and co-exist to identify how I live my life every day. My life is entwined in the lives of many others and each has an effect on me as I also affect their lives.
For me, nursing is a discipline of knowledge and awareness acquired both through proper education and throughout life challenges and experiences. The amount of these parts together continues to modify and refine my nursing. My many roles outside of nursing improve my personal knowledge which I bring and meld into my professional life. These life experiences open and connect me to many different cultures and opinions about life. My spiritual self allows me to maintain my inner center of who I am in relation to others. These encounters and personal growth, help me to see my role as a nurse through a unique lens founded in caring. Caring defines my life, and boosts my professional role as nurse.
Advocacy is another building block of my personal nursing creed. “Nursing is rooted from the needs of humanity and is founded on the idea of service. The nurse is temporarily the consciousness of the unconscious, the love of life for the suicidal, the leg of the amputee, the eyes of the newly blind, a means of locomotion for the infant, knowledge and confidence for the mother, and the mouthpiece for those to weak or withdrawn to speak” (Roberts, 2012, p. 1). As a nurse I will recognizes that an ill and defenseless patient cannot be a sturdy, self-advocate, may be unfamiliar with the health care system, and lacks knowledge of his or her individual patient rights. Nursing advocacy is a continual process in the implementation of nursing care. Nursing advocacy requires critical thinking skills, proper assessment, and intervention if needed. It is providing culturally appropriate information and education to the patient and significant others. This is...