Dignity and Meaning through Nursing

Nursing will lead me to a life of dignity and meaning. The ability to care for people, communities, and families will help me find dignity in the human life and my dignity. Caring for people in the community and families will assist them in attaining, maintaining and recovering their full functionality health wise thereby promoting their quality of life. Nursing is a profession in the heath sector and is majorly concerned with assisting communities and the individuals to live in their maximum health capacity for the betterment of their life quality. Nursing consists of the largest population in the health sector because of the ever increasing demand for nurses due to the continued need for care in the health professions. The registered nurses in the United States specifically are the largest workforce. Furthermore, nursing is one of the largest paying occupations. According to a report by the Nursing Organizations (2010 p. 68), about 60% of the registered nurses working in surgical and medical clinics and hospitals averages $66000 annually. This makes nursing to be one of the most coveted professions in the United States. In this paper, I will focus on explaining how I can find dignity and the dignity of others through my future work, leisure, and the combination of the work and leisure. Dignity and Meaning through Nursing

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Dignity refers to the inherent worth and value of a person derived from being a human being. Human dignity and meaning is a concept that remains of most significant principle in legal, moral, and political dimensions (Steinmann 1). This is because dignity promotes and preserves self-existence and freedom of an individual, therefore, limiting the chances of isolation. According to Emmanuel Kant, a classical philosopher, every human being possesses an intrinsic worth’ which makes them be regarded as human beings (Steinmann 1). By this, the intrinsic worth is referred to as dignity. On the other hand, the humanistic psychologists stress the importance of human dignity because it recognizes the intrinsic value and self-worth of every person and is irreplaceable. Therefore human dignity and meaning are innate, and every individual is born with it. Dignity is very much different from respect for humanity since respect is earned from the interaction with others in the community setting. Therefore dignity holds that every human being has the remarkable personal desire to get treated with respect and value. Finally, the ethical, moral, legal and political dimensions regard the concept of human dignity and meaning to conclude on the idea that every human being possesses the privilege of having the innate capacity to be respected, valued and accorded ethical treatment in the society.

Being a nurse will enable me to serve the human population with utmost care and dedication. This will provide me a chance to enhance the people dignity. Suffering as a result of mental or physical illness compromises the dignity of the individual (Barclay &Linda 138). Therefore, having the chance to assist them to realize their self-capacity and live their optimal lives in a healthy condition improves their dignity accordingly. As a result, serving the community to achieve dignity will also strengthen my dignity. However, the scope of serving the human population in the hospital setting is limited so that the nurse cannot extend their services to the people in the community unless they are in the medial facility. Moreover, considering the respect the nurses are accorded due to their perfect services, they become more respected and valued as a result of promoting healthy living among the members of the community.Dignity and Meaning through Nursing

According to Nursing organizations (2010) many nursing services consists of the caring services from the nurses. For instance, in the 1980s more than 68% of the registered nurses in the United States were stationed in hospitals. However, by the end of 2008, the number reduced to almost 63% since most of the nurses were now stationed in other sites away from the hospitals. These sites included private clinics, health promotion organizations, primary care facilities, public health institutions, home health services, nursing homes, schools, and military, among other places. This provided a broader field where the nurses can provide their services away from the hospital setting.

Besides, the service is limited concerning the time. This is because of the shifts the nurses are subjected to. Therefore, I intend to incorporate nursing as one of the activities performed during my leisure time. This will broaden my impact on the community in improving dignity when am off my duties and the hospital facility. For instance, I can incorporate nursing alongside other social workers in providing nursing services to the needy and elderly in a care facility. Research indicates that aged male population in the United States is predominant. Therefore, they are placed in care facilities. Therefore, most of them undergo more problems related to adapting to the environment away from their homes and the places they used to work. Most of them get sick as they try to acclimatize to the weather conditions if the place if geographically far from their homes. Therefore, engaging them in leisure activities will enable them to recollect their time outside and focus on the activities.

Moreover, I can use my leisure time to visit care institutions for the diabetic populations (Gastmans 143). In the care facilities, I can assist the patients in promoting proper behavior in among them to reduce the risk of the disease. For instance, I can encourage them to take their medicines in the right time and doses. This will enhance their health capacity thereby their human dignity. Furthermore, it will help me in living a purposeful and meaningful life since serving the sick in the care facility and helping them realize their fully functioning health conditions has been my longtime dream.

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 Furthermore, the leisure time can be spent on caring for the community initiated medical programs in the community setting. This will enhance my personal dignity and meaning in that the time that I would have spent in other unnecessary activities will be utilized in improving other peoples dignity as well. This will help me in living a purposeful life and improve my nursing skills in handling clients in a multicultural setting (Breunig&Steven 73). For instance spending my leisure time in engaging in drug abuse and alcoholism can ruin my character because the clients I serve in the hospital setting could be residing in the same place I live. Therefore engaging in unnecessary and poor leisure activities will make the clients lose trust in me. This will eventually reduce my self-worth to the extent that it will compromise my services at the medical facility I am attached to.Dignity and Meaning through Nursing

Moreover, indulging in bad leisure activities will damage my reputation because drugs affect thinking and judgment. Therefore, during the process, I can act in a manner that causes disrespect to myself and therefore my self-dignity. Finally engaging in drug abuse can result in a bad performance of my duties due to lateness or lack of concentration. Nursing requires full attention and dedication. Therefore, lack of focus can reduce my self-worth among the peers and as a result can lead to demotion or sacking.

Similarly, I can use a combination of my career and leisure activities to enhance dignity and meaning in life. To improve my self-dignity and meaning in life, I will make sure that I cut a clear line between work and personal time. This will ensure that personal time does not interfere with the work in the medical facility. Therefore, a clear distinction between the two will make me enjoy every bit of the time in either circumstance. This will give me time to engage in other resourceful activities such as visiting friends and time to recollect my thoughts.

Working as a nurse will help me responsible enough to serve the human population in provision health services. Besides, it will help me earn a living out of the salaries and wages. The salary will help boost my financial status thereby enabling me to fend for my personal needs and that of my family. This will promote my living standards because I will cease to be a dependent population or live below the poverty line. A better living standard is a source of dignity and meaning in life. Moreover, I can use the salary to finance occasional leisure time with my family thereby cutting the boredom they get when am out for work. This will enhance their experience out as well as getting to have time with my family. Being in a family setting and spending time together enhances personal dignity and meaning in life as the status raises. Dignity and Meaning through Nursing

Moreover, I can enroll in other academic programs such as counseling psychology to boost my knowledge in assisting my patients, and those in care facilitates. Sometimes offering medical services is ineffective and requires a combination of medication and providing therapeutic services. This will give me the knowledge to and be a flexible professional thereby promoting the lives of the patients. For instance, caring for the diabetic population requires the knowledge of the cognitive behavioral therapy. The knowledge will make me effective in handling the patients in the care facility thereby making me a resourceful person in the facility.

In conclusion, dignity and meaning in life can be sourced from work and leisure activities. The conduct of the person in the two circumstances and the ability to integrate the two for a purposeful life defines their dignity. An individual who uses their personal leisure time in an unnecessary activity jeopardizes their personal dignity. On the other hand, the one that uses leisure to enhance the personal dignity and that of the community as a whole is more worthwhile. From the discussion, it can be noted that dignity and meaning in life can be found in impacting on others and the way people conducts themselves. Alternatively, dignity should be differentiated from respect because respect in more concerned with the interaction in the community. Besides, dignity is concerned with the innate capacity of the person to influence self-worth and value from friends, peers and the community as a whole. Dignity and Meaning through Nursing