One of the most important parts of my time at UNC Charlotte is my journey through nursing school, as I am a nursing major. During my first semester in nursing school, I had to write a paper called my “Philosophy of Nursing.” This paper contained my beliefs about what core concepts nursing should be built around, and those beliefs were only strengthened as I went through nursing school. Since the concepts in this paper were what guided me through my experiences in nursing school, I chose it to be my seventh artifact. In my paper, I identified nursing as a medical science, a social science, and a service. The medical science gives us the skills and knowledge that we need to address people’s physical ailments. The social science comes from our good interpersonal skills, which is necessary as a nurse since so much of the components of this career involve interacting with patients and teaching them how to heal. And finally, the service, which is my personal favorite part, comes purely from having a heart to help others. My Philosophy of Nursing paper helped me see how an academic idea can be applied to the way we live our lives. I now see that this is the true purpose of college. It isn’t about cramming information into our heads so that we can be more hirable; it is helping us to form and shape philosophies that we can apply to our future careers as well as other areas in our lives.

 

Finally, my experience in nursing school is what ties my struggle with perfectionism, my theme of missing the balance, and how it applies to my future career of a nurse all together. I could not summarize it better than I did in my portfolio, so I will simply quote myself here:

 

"By focusing on serving my patients and making connections, I was able to forget about my own worries, fears, and impossible standards that I set for myself. Instead of trying to maintain this perfect balance for myself, I was able to help others strive to find some sort of a balance in their own lives. I didn’t expect my patients to be perfect at taking care of their health, but I hope that I was able to help them to make some sort of change – even a small one. Just a little more exercise, just a little better nutrition – that is all that it takes. We can’t be perfect and we will always miss the balance a little bit, but if we aim for it and get close to it, we can have a life that is that much more healthy and whole."

 

To read my Philosophy of Nursing paper, click on the picture of some of my classmates and I on the helipad.