There are set definitions of nursing made by every nurses association and dictionary. However, nursing goes beyond the definition and has distinct meaning to each individual nurse whether they are aware of the meaning or not. Several nurses have chosen to publicize their beliefs about nursing into their own nursing theory. Other nurses may have ideas similar to these theories, completely different from the theories, or a combination of multiple theories. Some nurses may have never even considered what nursing truly means to them. However, it isn’t until nurses sit down and truly look at what nursing means to them that they can fulfill their duties as a nurse to their full potential. In any philosophy of nursing there are four metaparadigms …show more content…
Virginia Henderson developed the nursing need theory, which focuses on increasing the patient’s independence to speed up the recovery process (Alligood and Tomey, 2009). This is where my theory begins to connect with hers. Our main duty as nurses is to provide care for the patient while they are unable to care for themselves and facilitate them to be the best individual they can be. For this reason nursing is both a science and an art. It is a science in that nurses must understand the disease processes that are affecting the patient’s health, they must also practice based on evidence that is defended by science, and know how to operate equipment and machines. However, it is an art because it requires unique care for each patient, and each nurse is going to provide care in a slightly different way. The nurse is responsible for following the health care providers plan of care, but the nurse provides the creativity that provides the individualized care. The ultimate goal of nursing is to provide care to facilitate the patient in retaining or maintaining their maximal level of …show more content…
Health is the state of maximum potential. Maximum potential varies from person to person and does not mean being illness or injury free. A person with a chronic disease may not be able to be completely illness free however, with the assistance of nursing care can be considered healthy when they are at the healthiest they can be. Virginia Henderson defines health as independence, however I believe it doesn’t need to be complete independence, rather the maximum independence a person is able to achieve. The ultimate goal of a nurse should be to facilitate the patient’s health goals, while encouraging them to exceed their goals if realistic. Health is a continuum and may be constantly changing with the goal to regain and maintain health as quickly and for as long as possible. Next, there is person that is to be cared for. A person is someone who needs nursing care. A person is made up of many parts including their mind, spirituality, and their body. The nurse is responsible for caring for all of these parts as considering the whole person is essential to facilitate healing. The nurse may also need to care for the patient’s family and the community. The family being in a healthy emotional state may be what is necessary for the patient’s improvement. Caring for the community can help prevent disease and screen for diseases. Preventing and early detection allows for quicker healing
In nursing, the patient is often viewed as the main priority of the nursing staff. The nurse works to provide care for the patient based on the patient 's admitting diagnosis. However, the patient must be looked at as a part of the greater system they exist in such as their family or home environment. While the patient may be ill due to a bacterial infection or virus, their family environment also plays a role in their overall health and wellness.
According to the American Nurses Association, nursing is defined as “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nurses have many jobs and responsibilities and wear many different hats. Nurses can perform at many different levels depending on their scope of practice which is defined by the board of nursing in one’s state of residence. It is important as nurses to understand and follow
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
This paper is a first attempt at forming and articulating my own philosophy of nursing.
The concept of person needs to be explored to go into further depth with the remaining concepts of the metaparadigm of nursing. Person refers to the person undergoing nursing care which includes individuals, families, groups, and communities (MacIntyre & McDonald, 2014, p.63). It is evident that each person may be unique with different biological, psychological, social, and spiritual depth (Thorne, 2010, p.66). Therefore, it is necessary for nurses to realize that each person at the centre of any nursing care will experience different feelings in regards to their body as a whole. The theorist, Parse, defines the concept of person as being “linked to an unfolding process, the relating of value priorities, meaning, and quality of life” (Wu, 2008, p.6). Also those human beings are free and choose in situations that arise from personal experience and becoming with the universe (Thorne, 2010, p.71). The nurses’ role in regards to this theory is to act encourage individuals in their human becoming process. Wu (2008) looks at the p...
"Philosophy is an attitude towards life that evolves from each nurses’ beliefs" (Parker, 2001). It is the philosophy that underlies our practice what brings to life our desire to be nurses. Philosophy is essential because it is the natural extension of our interest in knowing the truth (Parker, 2001). A metaparadigm is the widest perspective of the discipline and a way to describe the concepts that concern the profession of nursing (McEwen & Wills, 2014). In this paper, my philosophy of nursing will be discussed through reflection on the four nursing metaparadigm concepts to determine if anything should be added or taken out.
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.
Health is a state of well being, allowing humans to care for themselves independently. Everyone’s health condition is different and every person has a different perception of health. My view of health has affected my nursing practice in that I believe nurses must be competent, understanding the varying degrees of health and advocating on behalf of the patients. I believe when people no longer have the ability to take care of themselves independently, nurses are educated to assess, develop a plan of care, implement the plan, and make changes in order to achieve optimum health for all humans. I continuously make an effort to understand each patient’s specific health condition while striving to provide optimum
Nursing is a dynamic and ever changing field. Information comes almost on a daily basis. Several theories are in place in nursing, and no one theory is right for all patients. Many theories are used all at once and in various conditions. Focusing on a nursing theory is important to hospitals, especially if they want to have recognition in Magnet status. Victoria Henderson’s needs theory is once such theory that is still in practice today at many hospitals.
Since its establishment as a profession more than a century ago, Nursing has been a source for numerous debates related to its course, methods and development of nursing knowledge. Many nursing definitions and theories have evolved over time. Furthermore it is in a constant process of being redefined.
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
The Nursing Need Theory was developed by Virginia Henderson. She believed that the nurse should care for and help the patients as much as they needed until the patients were able to care for themselves independently again. In this grand theory, Henderson thought “the unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, whether they are sick or well, in activities that contributes to their health or recovery that the individual would do without assistance if they had the strength or knowledge; and do it in the manner for the individual to gain independence as soon as possible”.
Nursing theories are the support of nursing practice today. They are significant to nursing practice, education and scientific research because they help to determine, what is already known, and what additional knowledge and skills are needed. Nurses are usually first exposed to nursing theories during nursing education and further exposure comes from hands on training. The gained knowledge, about nursing theories, through education and training enhances better outcomes for patients and caregivers, allows application of professional boundaries, and assists in decision making. In this paper I will attempt to analyze, in general, the importance of nursing theory to the nursing profession; discuss middle-range theory, furthermore Benner’s model of skill acquisition, and how this theory addresses nursing’s metaparadigm; and how this theory views nursing education.
.(Alice Petrin,2016) This need theory promotes patient independence.This theory focuses on fourteen components of patient needs and the responsibility of the nurse to promote patient independence.(Alice Petrin,2016) The goal is patient will be have some level of independence needed to continue rehabilitation after discharge.The components of the need theory ranges from one basic needs of oxygen, food and water to psychosocial and emotional needs of acceptance, development and accomplishment.
In the practice of nursing, needs are an everyday phenomenon and are a common theme among many nursing theories accessible today. These nursing theories help implement care planning of the patient needs for the best possible outcome. Some examples of need theories include Virginia Henderson’s Nursing Needs Theory and Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (McEwen & Wills, 2011).