For this first Blog, you will reflect on your academic and professional experiences and write about strategies you have employed, or would like to employ, to help empower you to succeed as an online doctoral student.

Philosophy of Nursing As a nurse, I have personal beliefs of what nursing means to me and how to use my expertise to ascertain these beliefs. Nursing implies a life of selflessness, acumen, and sacrifice whereby the patients can live their lives under your care (Ritchie and Roser, 2018). The nursing philosophy helps and guides me to identify the beliefs that align with my expertise and accrued nursing experience. Overall, the nursing philosophy systematically guides the decisions I make daily while carrying out my nursing profession. My area of expertise is psychiatric health. I have experience handling, caring, and offering support to a vast array of patients, including patients suffering from mental health illness. To me, nursing is not just a profession but also a platform to protect the welfare of every patient you encounter by providing quality patient-centered care. My nursing philosophy is driven by the fact that nurses have the responsibility to provide holistic patientcentered care which include physical, and mental. Various beliefs inform this philosophy in the nursing profession, which aligns with my expertise and experience. These beliefs include respecting my patients' privacy, exercising autonomy in decision making, expressing sympathy and being honest with my patients, establishing good relationships with patients, and being highly committed to the welfare of the mental health patients (Shahriari et al., 2013). Therefore, protecting patient's privacy and allowing them to contribute to decisions about their health enables the establishment of a good relationship with the patients. This way, the patients are more open to disclosing their problems and can positively take the honest feedback. Furthermore, my belief in committing to addressing mental health issues has continued to unearth new ways of attending, handling, and relating with mental health patients to provide the best care to them.