Four Metaparadigms of Nursing
A metaparadigm is the shared communication, general set of concepts, perception of these concepts, a collective belief and the view of a discipline by a group of scholars within the specialty (Wagner, 1986). A metaparadigm is the foundation for the nursing profession, which can be used as a guide by nurses like me in making clinical judgment. There are four mataparadigms that are relevant to nursing practice- person, environment, health and nursing.
Person
The person component of the metaparadigm describes the individual, family, or community in need of health care. It also lays emphasis on the patient’s social, spiritual and physical demands. The nurse’s aim when interacting with the “person” is to support
71). Nursing discipline comprises of philosophies, theories, research and practical knowhow. (Smith 2008). Nursing theory is relevant to my present and future practice. Nursing theory frameworks serve as powerful guides for expressing, investigating, and announcing nursing concepts and activities. Ray (2011) said that theories help nurses to accomplish their goal of delivering the best quality nursing care. It is also my philosophy of nursing practice and it can help me to be the best APN providing safe and effective patient care. The two concepts that I find relevant to my role as an NP are evidence based Practice and health
Nurse practitioners’, as primary care providers base their practice on innovations and evidence to provide cost-effective health care services, which in turn can bring improved patient outcomes (Vincent, Hastings-Tolsma, Gephart, & Alfonzo, 2015). Through EBP, NPs can contribute to the transformation and improvement of health care. As a future nurse practitioner, I believe it is my duty to deliver my patients high quality care, while incorporating the best evidence into the clinician-patient decision making process. Also EBP will help me to keep my body of knowledge up to date and enhance clinical judgment. An example for EBP used in my practice is the Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis for post-operative patients. In our hospital, we follow a DVT prevention protocol, which includes application of sequential compression devices and TED stockings in the pre-operative area; early ambulation within first eight hours of surgery and initiation of low molecular anticoagulation therapy for high risk patients. All these measures have proven to reduce the risk of DVT in post-surgical
It is made of concepts which define the discipline and is the most abstract viewpoint of a discipline. The accepted concepts that are universal in all nursing theory are human beings or persons, environment, health and nursing, commonly known as the nursing metaparadigm (p. 90). Fawcett (1984), considers nursing philosophy and knowledge development as the basis of the nursing metaparadigm concepts. They are “central concepts of the discipline” (Fawcett, p. 84) that interact and interrelate. The four metaparadigms must be considered in
The purpose of this paper is to present a personal belief about the metaparadigm of nursing and to incorporate it into that of Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring.
The nursing profession is considered both an art and a science. An example of the science of nursing is the theory and evidence based practice guidelines (EBP), which influence a nurses practice. The art of nursing is fluid of bringing science and patient care into nursing practice. Nurses in all levels of nursing educational programs should study nursing theory. According to Eun-Ok (2015) theory evaluation has declined and it is essential to developing nursing knowledge; which, leads to the development of nursing discipline. Nursing theory should be continually evolving as current health care trends evolve. The best way to accomplish this is through incorporating theory in academia and nursing
My personal nursing philosophy and fundamental beliefs of nursing using the four meta-paradigms concepts: nature of human beings, health, environment, and nursing. First, I believe that the profession of nursing is all about the nature of human beings as people. Care involves the patient as a whole, not just as a disease process. Second, I believe that health is on the same continuum as illness. Health is more about quality of life. Third, it is also necessary to look beyond the patient to the environment in which he/she lives in. This is important because people come from different backgrounds and have their own story, we cannot separate patients from their environment because they are interrelated. Last, I think that nursing involves being with the individual patient and having an active roll with them. This process of being engaged in meaningful relationships requires we as nurses be actively
As one of the newest nurses in the ER currently and one of a handful able to do these I have strived to learn as much as possible in regards to patient care, while leaving behind none of the nursing metaparadigms. The four concepts of the nursing metaparadigm are: Environment, Health, Human Beings, and Nursing. These concepts guide me in every interaction from assessing the patient, to treatment, and discharge instructions. Based off of these concepts I can assess the risk for a disease, probability of changing unhealthy habits, ways to improve the probability of changing unhealthy habits, end-of-life desires, and
To make good nursing decisions, nurses require an internal roadmap with knowledge of nursing theories. Nursing theories, models, and frameworks play a significant role in nursing, and they are created to focus on meeting the client’s needs for nursing care. According to McEwen and Wills (2014), conceptual models and theories could create mechanisms, guide nurses to communicate better, and provide a “systematic means of collecting data to describe, explain, and predict” about nursing and its practice (p. 25). Most of the theories have some common concepts; others may differ from one theory to other. This paper will evaluate two nursing theorists’ main theories include Sister Callista Roy’s
Around the 1960s, nursing educational leaders wanted to formulate a nursing theory that contained knowledge and basic principles to guide future nurses’ in their practice (Thorne, 2010, p.64). Thus, Jacqueline Fawcett introduced the metaparadigm of nursing. Metaparadigm “identifies the concepts central to the discipline without relating them to the assumptions of a particular world view” (MacIntyre & Mcdonald, 2014). Fawcett’s metaparadigm of nursing included concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing that were interrelated. The metaparadigm ultimately contributed to conceptual framework to guide nurses to perform critical thinking and the nursing process in everyday experiences in clinical settings.
The nursing metaparadigm consist of the person, environment, health/illness, and nursing (Creasia &Frieberg, 2011). Persons are those individuals receiving nursing care, such as patients, families and communities (Creasia &Frieberg, 2011). Environment refers to the setting where nursing care is provided, as well as the surroundings and internal factors affecting the client (Creasia &Frieberg, 2011). Health and illness refer to the state of well being of the person and nursing refers to the actions taken to provide care for the person (Creasia &Frieberg, 2011).
The best way to look at nursing theories is like the foundational block. Nursing theories are important set the tone of how a nurse will practice. A nurse will use intuition, practice, past expertise and events, and couple with learned theories to work every day in order to give the best patient care. it is all the more important to appreciate what first advanced nursing beyond mechanisms of practice to becoming a knowledge-based force in healthcare: That force is nursing theory and the theoretical thinking and research that generate theory. The complexity and depth of nursing are reflected in its structure of knowledge, which includes discipline-specific components such as philosophies, theories, and research and practice methodologies”( Reed, 2006). Patient care is a wide topic, but a key role in a patient’s care is the patient themselves, an educated patient is vital to their well being and higher level of care.
A metaparadigm is an overarching framework that provides a comprehensive perspective of a discipline. In nursing, this framework serves to distinguish the profession intellectually, comprising of four concepts which provide a foundation to the content and context of nursing theory and scope of practice (Lee & Fawcett, 2013; Masters, 2014; Schim, Benkert, Bell, Walker, & Danford, 2007). Namely, these foundational concepts are: person, environment, health, and nursing. Hence, the intent of this essay is to describe the four main concepts that make up nursing’s metaparadigm and discuss how they are used in practice, education and research.
This paper explores the personal philosophy I have as a nursing student and what I intend to convey throughout my nursing career. A philosophy is “an analysis of the grounds and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.). Before entering into any profession it is important to evaluate your personal philosophy about the profession, as it pertains to values and principles in which believe in to guide your practice. The field of nursing is more than treating a physiological ailment, but it involves providing quality care for the individualized needs of each patient, hence being client centered. My philosophy of nursing integrates the importance of knowledge base practice of medicine, combined with addressing holistic needs of the patient and family, including the physical, psychological, cognitive, emotional, spiritual and social care (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, 2010). Additionally, a vital aspect of nursing is effective interpersonal relationships with other healthcare professionals to promote quality patient care. Moreover, my philosophy includes the importance the client-nurse relationship to aid in health promotion to prevent illness and increase the level of health of clients.
In order to do that the nurse has to be able to incorporate all aspects of nursing into the care. Whether it is caring for physical, cognitive, mental, social, or cultural problems the nursing science and philosophy should always be implemented in the same manor or basis. It is important to understand that these factors can theoretically continue to impact the development of science, including nursing science (Daiski, 2016). It is essential to incorporate all the central concerns of nursing into the nursing practice to be able to provide the necessary care. Daiski stated that it is demonstrated by the four-metaparadigm concepts, which are human being, health, environment, and nursing. It then contains a philosophy based on social justice, so that we are able to comprehend the complications of the narratives our patients tell us so that we are more prone to holistically understand their journeys (Daiski,
Developing a philosophy takes time and is cultivated from many different sources. When working to establish my own theory behind nursing I have determined that the original basis of my philosophy steams from my childhood experiences. As a child growing up in a family with three other siblings, chaos was often guaranteed to occur on a daily basis, but I always worked happily to help my parents diffuse the numerous problematic situations that erupted. From a young age I was identified as the caretaker of my siblings, as a result of always being left in charge of my two younger sisters and one older sister. Caring for others has always been a deeply engrained part of my character, and it is a majorly influential factor that pushed me towards
I always treat each person as a unique individual with unique life experiences. I treat my patients with respect and address their cultural beliefs and values. I pride myself with having a caring attitude and want to help and heal people from their illness physically and psychologically. I think nursing can be both science and art. I think to be a successful nurse; the nurse needs to master the art of caring and continually learn and apply knowledge of nursing science throughout their career. Without caring or nurturing the nurse cannot connect with the patient and trust will not develop, without a trusting relationship, therapeutic nursing will not be able to occur. Therefore, I feel caring is at the forefront of all successful nursing interactions. This is not to negate the value that science brings to nursing. A competent nurse must be able to have a variety of knowledge and skill. The next part of the paper will discuss the metaparadigm of
The metaparadigm encompasses the major philosophical orientations of a discipline, the models and theories that guide research, and the empirical indicators that operationalize theoretical concepts. The purpose or function of the metaparadigm is to summarize the intellectual and social mission of the nursing discipline and place boundaries on the subject matter of that discipline (McEwen & Wills, 2014). The four metaparadigm of the discipline of nursing are person or client, environment, health, and nursing (Parker, 2001). A person or client is the recipient of nursing care. The environment is the internal or external surroundings that affect the client. Health is the degree of wellness or well-being that the client experiences. The nursing concept refers to the attributes and actions