My philosophy of nursing is associated with the assistance to people aimed at improving their health outcomes by providing treatment and also preventative measures. I believe that nursing is the sphere that requires the constant enhancement and evidence-based practices. The rapidly changing environment, innovations in treatment, development of new approaches, and varying needs of patients cause the need to elaborate on the nursing activities. However, I consider that the traditional metaparadigm suggested by Florence Nightingale reflects the very essence of nursing.
In my point of view, each of the following concepts of this metaparadigm is rather significant as it focuses on the fundamental values: person, health, environment, and nursing. The first concept of a person focuses on the holistic care and embraces people in general rather than only one individual. The patient’s friends and family also require some part of nurses’ attention (Smith & Parker, 2015).
The second concept is health that refers to the patient’s well-being that may involve a range of factors, such as genetics, physical, psychological, and other aspects. However, I understand the concept of health as something relative as there are no standards for all people that differ from each other by age, sex, body type, etc. Environment is the third concept that is associated with both internal and external factors, including social, economic, personal, geographic, and plenty of others. It seems to me environment plays a huge role in identifying one’s health and nursing care strategies.
The last concept is nursing that covers knowledge, skills, and experience of a person to become a compassionate nurse, having empathy to patients. My personal philosophy corresponds to all the mentioned concepts as I consider that patient-centered care with the focus on environment is the best way to ensure the appropriate nursing assistance.
The four metaparadigms of nursing developed by Florence Nightingale cover every aspect of nursing, so there is nothing to delete or take away. However, I would like to detach the concept of Comfort and treat it as a separate metaparadigm. Comfort is a concept that has roots in all four of the major metaparadigms and yet cannot be assigned to only one. It is defined as an immediate experience of improvement through having their needs relieved. Comfort is important to both the patient and the nurse, as low levels of comfort in a patient would inevitably lead to a drop in satisfaction and the quality of life, whereas a sense of discomfort in a nurse would lead to gradual stress buildup and a decrease in the quality of provided care.
The integration, development, and understanding of Florence Nightingale’s four metaparadigms into my nursing philosophy helped me gain a broader and deeper understanding of what nursing is really about. Although the concepts of patient, nurse, environment, and health may seem like broad generalizations, they are also very versatile as they can be applied to virtually any situation in nursing practice, thus reflecting the very essence of nursing.
Smith, M. C., & Parker, M. E. (2015). Nursing theories and nursing practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
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