What I Would Like to Work On - Essay on Faith in Nursing Career

Spiritual care and compassionate involves taking care of the person as a whole emotionally, socially, spiritually and physically which requires an internal spiritual activity. I would like to work on my faith as it is an important aspect of a nursing career. Faith helps in reminding the nurses and other professionals that through Christ they can do all things as He gives us strength (Cherry & Jacob, 2016).

A strong faith will enable me to help my patients comprehend the meaning behind their suffering. Through faith and frequently reading the Bible, I can be able to quote important messages that are helpful to the patients who are suffering. For example, I can be able to use the verse from Romans chapter eight which tells Christians that if they love God, they will understand that all things happen for the sake of our good.

Once I have achieved to make my patients understand why they are suffering, then they can stop asking questions such as Will I be remembered when I die? Why does it have to be me? Why is this happening to me? Among many issues that cannot be explained. Such questions are detrimental and only make the health of the patients to become worse. Once I can help my patients get the answers to such questions, they will be at ease, and hence their healing process will be enhanced.

Faith is the most important aspect of the healing process besides medication, diet and keeping fit. As a nurse, faith will help me connect well with my patients. A significant number of patients value faith and would prefer to be taken care by religious nurses as such nurses are believed to be God- fearing (Donald et al, 2016).

What I Want to Change

However, I would like to work on my friendship. I am a person who does not easily initiate friendship while on the other hand, my career as a nurse requires me to be a friendly person. I would like to learn more how to make new friendship and associate well with other people. It is important for me to be friendly because as a nurse I am required to spend quality time with my patients when encouraging them to be active even in their sufferings. Spending quality time with the sick people makes them feel important and not left out by the society. I am required to talk to them about what is important. When spending time with the sick people, it might require holding hands when you pray or when giving a word of encouragement (Wittenberg et al, 2017).

Therefore, just like regular friends do, I would be obliged to be there for them including the time when they are in pain to provide compassionate care to my patients. As opposed to just conveying information about their medication and diet, the patient is comforted by the fact that nurses can spare a fraction of their time to talk to them as friends.

Impact of Faith and Friendship in my Health

As a result of strengthening my faith, my emotional health will also be positively impacted. I will be able to deal with stress while improving the quality of life. Moreover, increasing the circle of my friends will enhance my social connections. Friends will share with me all my encounters hence render me free of stress as the feeling of being responsible for everything that happens is burdensome (Wittenberg et al, 2017).

References

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Donald, F., Kilpatrick, K., Reid, K., Carter, N., Bryant-Lukosius, D., Martin-Misener, R., ... & DiCenso, A. (2015). Hospital to community transitional care by nurse practitioners: A systematic review of cost-effectiveness. International Journal of nursing studies, 52(1), 436-451.

Wittenberg, E., Ragan, S. L., & Ferrell, B. (2017). Exploring Nurse Communication About Spirituality. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 34(6), 566-571.