Introduction: Your beliefs and values influence your actions. A philosophy is a statement or description of beliefs and values. For example, the Faculty of the Division of Nursing has written a philosophy which articulates their core beliefs and values about nursing and education. Your philosophy of nursing will determine what values you emphasize in your professional career and nursing practice. Developing Your Philosophy: In order to develop your personal philosophy of nursing think about the following questions. It is helpful to write your responses/thoughts on paper and reflect of them over time so that you may make changes which truly reflect your beliefs and values. 1. How do you view the role of the nursing profession in society? What are the purposes of nursing? Who do nurses serve? How do we assure the public (society) that all its members are served well? 2. How do you view the patient or client (human beings)? What is the patient or client’s (human beings) role in his/her health? How do nurses help patients/clients to achieve their health goals, or, meet their needs? 3. How do you view the role of the nurse? How is this consistent with the above beliefs? What are the primary responsibilities of the nurse in a society that values diversity? 4. How will you develop your clinical practice to reflect your values? What are your core values which are the essence of a professional nurse? 5. What are your beliefs and values about education, your role as a student and future practitioner of nursing? Guidelines for Writing: After considering these questions and your responses develop an outline that describes your beliefs about nursing, society, health, patients and the environment. Do not write in generalities; be specific, so that your philosophy reflects what your values, your beliefs. From your outline, write a rough draft. Check to make sure that there is a smooth transition from one idea to another. Determine a title that fits and captures the essential idea of your personal philosophy of nursing. If your written communication skills are weak, seek help from the Writing Center! After your draft has been critiqued by either the Writing Center or another individual who can offer helpful feedback, revise the philosophy paper. The format is to be in APA. One inch margins, 12 point font, Times Roman and double spaced. There are to be no spelling or grammatical errors. Be attentive to the due date identified on the Topical Outline so that you may plan your time accordingly. This is not to exceed 3 pages. The evaluation rubric for grading follows. A. The student expresses a strong, coherent set of values that are woven through the author’s views regarding society, health, nursing, human being and environment. 20 All ideas work together to support the stated values. 16 Most ideas and examples support the stated values. 12 While many ideas support the stated values, others are in contradiction. 8 Values are not strongly communicated to support ideas, author has ideas but these do not seem to flow from values. 4 Values are implied in ideas and examples but there is no evidence that these values form ideas. 0 No values stated or implied. B. The paper used specific, concrete examples to explain and illustrate the student’s philosophy. 10 Relevant examples support all main ideas. 8 Relevant examples support most of the main ideas. 6 Relevant ideas support few of the main ideas. 4 Examples are given but do not support the values of the philosophy. 2 The few examples given do not support the philosophy. 0 Examples are not given, the paper relies on generalities. C. The paper shows evidence of deep personal thought and genuine expression. 20 The ideas are original and well developed reflecting reflection over time. 16 The ideas are well developed and sincere, pulling from sources that support the student’s thinking. 12 The ideas appear to be a genuine expression of the student’s thinking, and reflect some critical thought. 8 The ideas borrow heavily from readings and discussion with some evidence that they have been internalized by the student. 4 The ideas borrow haphazardly from readings and discussion with little evidence that they have been internalized by the student. 0 The ideas show no reflection on the part of the student.