The metaparadigm of nursing is characterized by nursing, person, health, and environment. My nursing philosophy is providing optimal holistic care to every patient, showing compassion, and being empathetic and culturally sensitive. It is important to me that I advocate for my patients, treat everyone with respect and dignity, and coordinate care based on each patient’s needs and cultural background.
My perspective of the nursing metaparadigm of person is that I believe that nursing is a profession where we deal with people. We focus on providing care not only to patients that we encounter but also to patient families’ communities and the people we surround ourselves with. We focus on providing care to everyone, which includes being respectful, caring, and coordinating care based on the person’s values and cultural needs. According to Jean Watson’s theory of human care, the human being has specific requirements that need to be valued, cared for, respected, nurtured, understood, and assisted (Watson’s Philosophy and Science of Caring, 2020).
In the profession of nursing, we integrated Jean Watson’s theory into our practice when providing patient-centric care. We do not focus only on a person’s sickness but on every aspect of their being; we ensure each person’s needs and well-being are met. As a nurse, we sometimes must be a therapy where we must listen to our patient, makes sure they are understood, and advocate for their autonomy. Each person is different but what remains the same for everyone is everyone deserves to be treated equally with respect, compassion, and dignity.
The second component of the metaparadigm of nursing is health. I believe that health is the person’s overall well-being, which includes physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual wellness. A patient’s health goes beyond just focusing on the person’s illness. It also requires both body and mind to be at peace for oneself to be truly healthy. To me, a person’s physical health does not mean a person needs to be physically whole without limitation but to be at the highest form where he or she can do things independently.
Environmental factors play a significant role in nursing because they partially influence a person’s health, resulting from their environment. I believe the food we put in our bodies, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the state of our environment can contribute to whether a person’s health improves or takes a turn for the worst. According to Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory, it is not healthy for a patient to constantly breathe in and out of their air. They would become or remain sick and cause re-infection. For a person to achieve optimal health, the environment needs to be appropriately ventilated, noise should be kept at a minimum, and the room should remain clean and sanitized (Riegel, 2021).
A nurse’s role for a patient is to create an environment to improve conditions for the patient and allow healing to occur not only for the body but also for the person’s mental state. For example, at my job, when a new admission comes in, and the patient is unique to the environment, it is my job as the nurse to make sure the patient is comfortable and feels secure. If they are restless and their needs are not met, they become resistant to care, hindering them from reaching their maximum health and causing more extended rehab stay. For every human, whether they are patient or not, the environment determines their quality of life.
Order this paper