My Nursing Philosophy Statement

For one of my undergraduate philosophy papers, I rather boldly concluded that our minds do not exist as we take them to be. I felt a cautious excitement as I went in to discuss my draft with the professor. It wasn’t long before he replied with a humbling chuckle at my ambitious thesis, pointing out a flaw in one of the premises. Nevertheless, these kinds of philosophical discussions were some of the most intellectually stimulating moments during my undergraduate education. I appreciated how the problems posed in philosophy became increasingly broad – answering one question would not only deepen our understanding of the issues at hand, but also presented new questions for us to consider. Many cases did not have a satisfactory answer; instead, the emphasis was placed on the problem-solving

I enjoyed the nuanced approach to patient care, addressing both medical and psychiatric issues while simultaneously managing multiple comorbidities. Like the questions discussed in philosophy, cases in medicine were often challenging and required a multidisciplinary approach, sometimes with no definite solution. For example, one of my patients was a middle-aged man, hard of hearing, who presented with a chronic cough. His workup had been unrevealing, and he had not responded to any medications. We had exhausted nearly all etiologies. I then remembered the Arnold Reflex, a rare reflex that can produce a chronic cough from physical stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve. Given that the patient received a new hearing aid last year, I suggested that the device might be eliciting this reflex. Rather than replying with a humbling chuckle, my team entertained the idea and debated the possibility, although we ultimately deemed it less likely. Nevertheless, it was exciting to think through the possibilities in cases like these, and I was enthusiastic to learn