The purpose of the philosophy of nursing paper is to provide an opportunity for the
student to explore, clarify and explain a personal belief system as it relates to the
practice of professional nursing. In order to provide adequate background as foundation
for the personal philosophy of nursing, the student should utilize scholarly resources
from nursing, psychology, philosophy and/or theology. Utilizing these resources, the
student must include the following in the paper:
1. A formal introduction which articulates the purpose of your paper, explains why it is
important to examine a personal philosophy nursing and introduces the concepts that you
will be discussing.
2. A paragraph on your philosophy/beliefs about caring
3. A paragraph on your philosophy/beliefs about the profession of nursing
4. A paragraph on your philosophy/beliefs about health and illness.
5. A paragraph or more on the relationship between caring, nursing, and health and illness.
6. A paragraph or more discussing three additional concepts that you believe are central to
nursing.
7. A formal conclusion to your paper which ties back to your introduction and summarizes
your key points.
Instructions for writing the paper:
The body of the paper should be between 3-5 typed pages in length (not including the
title page or reference page.) Please note that you do not need to include an abstract
with this paper.
A minimum of three professional references is required. Note: Webster’s dictionary is
NOT considered an appropriate resource for a college-level paper, nor are websites or
Wikipedia.
The paper MUST adhere to proper formatting according to the guidelines published by
the American Psychological Association (APA Style, 7th edition). Any paper not
adhering to APA style may be returned to the writer for proper formatting.
Students are encouraged to review the “Common APA and Grammar Issues found in
Student Papers” in the “Course Resources” under the “Course Specific Information”
before completing their papers.
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It is also highly suggested that the student has someone else proof-read papers before
submission to assist with editorial revisions and corrections.
The paper may be written in either first person (i.e.:” I believe”,” my philosophy”) or the
third person (i.e.: “the student believes”, “the authors philosophy”). Whichever is chosen
should be utilized consistently throughout the paper.
The paper MUST include a formal introduction and conclusion and proper use of APA
headings.
No more than two direct quotations should be used in the paper. Those quotations need
to be formatted according to APA and properly cited in-text.
