Altruism and Human Love: The Essence of Nursing Essay

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Nursing Ethics

What are the spiritual and cultural values that come into play for me as a nurse, when I'm on the job and caring for a patient or giving an otherwise healthy patient a physical checkup? Ethics and moral values play a huge part in the healthcare field, especially with a nurse, who is often providing patient-centric, one-on-one care in a hospital or clinical setting. A nurse must set the bar high when it comes to integrity, ethics, morals, and respect for all people, to include other cultures. This is the mantra I try to follow not just on the floor as a nurse but in my personal life with my family and friends; after all, a nurse could not be a cold, heartless, indifferent person in private life and suddenly be an ethical, caring, moral professional on the job. This paper uses scholarly research to accurately portray the ethical and moral values a nurse must have to be effective, and to a large extent, those ethical and moral values reflect my own beliefs and practices.

Human Love -- A Necessary Ingredient in Nursing

In the Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences the authors reference a textbook on nursing that was written in 1911 by Swedish nurse Estrid Rodhe, which stands even today as a valuable book because it speaks to the altruism and unselfishness nursing should represent. It echoes my own beliefs and values because in Rodhe's book the author highlights nursing knowledge, the ethical requirements that go into being a nurse, and as the authors note, "Understanding the past helps us comprehend current issues in nursing" (Kangasniemi, et al., 2012). I have deep respect for Rodhe for coming up with a textbook that went beyond the job-related and healthcare-related issue and went right to the heart of nursing -- the ethical values that must be practiced in order to provide the greatest possible care for patients.

This remarkable book was unique for several reasons, but overall the authors of this article point out that there were very few textbooks on nursing that zeroed in on the ethical values that should be part of nursing. The title of the book was About Nursing Ethics, and it was in fact the "very first textbook in Finland that focuses on nursing ethics" (Kangasniemi, 803). Moreover, it was the first textbook actually written by a nurse, and the next textbook that referenced nursing ethics wasn't published for another 70 years. And though several nursing textbooks came out between the time Rodhe's book was published and seventy years later (when the next nursing book dealing with ethics written by a nurse), they were written by "physicians, theologians or educators" (Kangasniemi, 803).

The authors remind readers that a theoretical premise for one particular profession is never "independent of the current period and context," and in fact the theoretical premise for any field is "under constant change" (Kangasniemi, 804). That certainly includes the nursing profession -- and the society to which nurses serve -- and I have seen the changes in the nursing industry in the time I have worked as a nurse. And yet, looking at the changing, evolving landscape for nurses in my generation and the technological innovations and continuing high cost of healthcare, I can see that no matter those changes, there will always be a need for an ethical approach to healthcare.

I believe I have an obligation and a moral commitment to live up to the highest standards in the healthcare industry. When I look at the way in which nurses were treated in the years that Rodhe worked in the field -- and the difficult conditions under which nurses were obliged to work -- I am very grateful to be living and working in this era. Yes there are challenges, and sometimes the workload seems outrageous in terms of the overtime and the shortage of qualified nurses available, but I am indeed grateful to be living in the 21st century and to be paid a fair wage based on my talent, my level of experience and knowledge.

Credit should always be given to Florence Nightingale for her path-finding emphasis on nursing values in the late 19th century, but a great deal of credit should also be given to Roche. In the years that Rodhe worked, nurses were "subordinated to physicians"; their pay was very low, their working hours were brutally long, and there was a "scarcity…of educated nurses and care materials" (Kangasniemi, 804). When I think of the hardships that nurses in Rodhe's era were subjected to -- and yet the record shows that nurses in the late 19th century and the early 20th century were committed to patients and willing to bear many burdens -- I take my hat off to their efforts.

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It causes me to assess my own values, including my spiritual values, because there is a need for those whose of us -- whose caring hands are trained to help others in need -- to believe in a higher power. You don't have to be involved in a specific religion or denomination to have a spiritual outlook and to realize we were all put here on this planet for a reason, and for me, that reason includes the stewardship towards others. Rodhe's whole professional life was about love, the love that goes into caring for an ill or injured person, and I see that need today more than at any time since I graduated from nursing school.

After perusing the book, A History of Nursing: The Evolution of Nursing Systems from the Earliest Times to the Foundation of the First English and American Training Schools for Nurses (Nutting, et al., 1912), I learned that Rodhe was the editor of the Swedish Nurses' Journal, which was launched in 1909. This shows the kind of professional leadership that Rodhe exhibited, which clearly went beyond just writing a book on nursing ethics. This monthly scholarly journal was apparently the first of its kind in the nursing profession, and the authors of the book describe the journal as having a "…fine, high tone and point-of-view in nursing matters" (Nutting, 251).

Moreover, Nutting gives credit to Rodhe as a "…strong, true, lofty character of most winning personality" (251). Nutting described Rodhe as being "…deeply absorbed in all the work or organisation going on among nurses over the world" (251). The author goes on to point out that Rodhe -- a person who has become my heroine now that my research has led me to her legacy -- was "full of the joy of sharing in it to the full, when, in August, 1911, she was suddenly taken away by death"; she will "long be truly mourned by nurses at home and abroad," Nutting continued on page 251.

I look at the efforts that Rodhe put forward, and the quality of her mind and personality, and I strive to be in that same category of caring and having a high point-of-view when it comes to nursing matters. In Rodhe's book she went to great lengths to describe the "human love in nursing" -- which she believed was manifest through altruism. In fact, Rodhe's conception of nursing ethics -- which should be required study in all nursing colleges and classes -- and the moral imperative behind her book can be boiled down to three ideas.

Those three ideas include: a) the "absolute value" inherent in nursing is a call for altruism / human love for all persons; human love is the basis for all nurses in any healthcare setting; b) Rodhe lived in a time when nurses were always women; hence, her second idea was called "Virtuous woman: a personal reason for being a nurse" which she meant as the needed personal characteristics an individual must possess before becoming a nurse; and c) Rodhe's third idea was that "A nurse's ethical duty [is to] to implementation and subservience"; this is her idea of the moral basis for practicing human love in nursing (Kangasniemi, 806).

My Personal Thoughts on Ethics in Nursing

I am so impressed with Rodhe's work (her book was published the year she died, which was coincidental but poignant) because of the early period in professional nursing in which she worked, and because the words "altruism" and "love" keep coming up. My upbringing was build to a large degree on love of family, love of all people, and it was not until I had worked as a nurse for a time that I began to think of altruism (unselfish giving from the heart). Nurses face a lot of adversarial issues, including what might be called "office politics," as well as long hours and shortages of quality nurses to back up my work. But I have a sworn duty to make good decisions, to be mindful of my duties and responsibilities to other humans, and to show my love for all humanity while I am practicing competently in my chosen field.

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