Responsibility: A Personal Account
Today, more than ever before, the concept of responsibility is increasingly gaining currency as an essential ingredient not only in the job market but also in school and home environments. Several overlapping themes have surfaced from the education, business and nursing literature related to responsibility, including conceptions of obligation, behavior based on commitment, duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task, demonstrating accountability, as well as dependability and trustworthiness (Conard and Pope 88; Faseleh-Jahromi, Maattari, and Peyrovi 289). The present paper attempts to provide a personal account of my relationship with the concept of responsibility.
Responsibility implies different things to people and has been used variedly depending on context or environment. At a personal level, I am of the considered opinion that responsibility means being accountable for what I am and what I do on a day-to-day basis. As such, to be a responsible human being means to be held liable for my actions and behavior. It also means to be dependable and trustworthy to a point where I can desist from blaming others for my personal or professional mistakes. Lastly, to be a responsible human being means to demonstrate a moral duty and obligation to follow through and complete allocated tasks on time.
Responsibility cannot be exercised in a vacuum, implying that it has to be related to other people, tasks, or issues. Personally I feel responsible for my grades in school and health. I also feel responsible for the health and wellbeing of my parents, siblings, schoolmates, as well as friends. Furthermore, I feel responsible for the conservation of the environment and all wildlife. I feel responsible for friends and colleagues who engage in socially undesirable behavior. Indeed, I have previously attempted to offer my advice to a few of them with the view to changing their actions. At a personal level, I do not feel responsible for the actions of repeat offenders and people who engage in the destruction of the environment.
My sense of responsibility extends to issues outside my immediate surroundings in many ways. First, I have been engaged in community campaigns to create awareness of the need to conserve the environment and increase forest cover upon the realization that we need to preserve the ecosystems for future generations. Second, I have been a routine volunteer in the provision of social and healthcare services to the elderly and disadvantaged groups within my local community and beyond. I feel personally responsible for their well-being, and I have gained tremendous experience working with these groups of the population. Lastly, I am a member of a neighborhood watch group that is tasked with overseeing the security and wellbeing of community members.
In the demonstration of responsibility, some things or tasks are considered more serious than others. At a personal level, I take my education, future professional career, health, and family relationships with much more seriousness. I am also deeply committed to the preservation of the environment, the health and wellbeing of friends and schoolmates, and the safety of community members. Within the neighborhood, I take part in developing and implementing campaigns aimed at creating awareness on some lifestyle habits that can lead to ill health.
Overall, this paper has provided a personal account of my relationship with the notion of responsibility. From the discussion, it can be concluded that responsibility is an excellent virtue that needs to be cultivated and nurtured for personal growth as well as professional excellence. A significant learning outcome is that, although we may fail numerous times, we are not failures until we start to blame others for our shortcomings.
Works Cited
Conard, Patricia L. and Tess Pope. “Roles and Responsibilities of the Nursing Scholar.” Pediatric Nursing. 40.2 (2014): 87-90. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web.
Faseleh-Jahromi, Mohsen, Marzieh Maattari and Hamid Peyrovi. “Iranian Nurses’ Perceptions of Social Responsibility: A Qualitative Study.” Nursing Ethics. 21.3 (2014): 289-298. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web.