Meaning
The Environmental Model developed by Florence Nightingale in the second half of the 19th century is one of the first theories in nursing practice that became the basis for future nursing activity. Nightingale’s model mostly described how nurses must take care of their patients and what environment they must create in order to perform a proper treatment. Nightingale stated that the environment must include ventilation of the quarters in which the patient is placed. It must also be properly illuminated and as clean as possible. One of the most important concepts is the need to provide the patient with an appropriate diet. The most important concept, however, is that the patient must not take any efforts to receive proper treatment altogether (Wayne, 2014).
The other main concepts include definitions of human beings, health, and environment. Human beings are described through the environment in which they are placed and its effect on a human being. The environment, in turn, is described as a system that changes in accordance with the needs of a patient. In fact, the environment is adjusted by the nurses. Due to the fact that knowledge of health was mostly underdeveloped in Nightingale’s lifetime, the concept of health is not described because Nightingale believed that the contemporary medicine did not know anything about health.
There were also subconcepts such as the health of houses, ventilation and warming, light, noise, variety, bed and bedding, personal cleanliness, nutrition, hopes and advises, and social considerations. All of these concepts mostly complement the concept of environment. The environment is interconnected with the concept of health and concept of human being meaning that healthy environment will promote faster healing processes and a better treatment overall. Further, increasing the health concept will lead to a healthier and more satisfied human being.
Origins of the Theory
According to Lee, Clark and Thompson (2013), in Nightingale’s lifetime, women were not presented with a variety of choices when considering taking up a profession. One of the most common careers to pick was nursing. Although medical progress has developed significantly since the 19th century, many common problems such as hospital infections still occur very often and may even be fatal. However, the practices that Florence Nightingale has discovered with the invention of her Environmental Model remain, and they are still relevant whenever it comes to healthcare.
Nightingale was mostly motivated by her beliefs and by her evaluation of tempo at which different patients recovered (Medeiros, Enders, & Lira, 2015). She began to question what causes faster healing processes, and what creates obstacles for nursing personnel. Therefore, Nightingale noticed certain patterns and relations between the environment in which a patient is residing and their healing processes. Thus, Nightingale began to improve environment to raise the effectiveness of treatment further. As a result, she developed the Environment Model which is still as important as ever.
Usefulness
Having in mind that the Environmental Model by Florence Nightingale is still very common in the nursing procedures, its usefulness is out of doubt. This model is mostly aimed at describing and enacting practical measures, so it is safe to assume that this theory has a lot of practical use when it comes to providing safer and healthier environment for increasing the patient’s chances of successful recovery. What this theory lacks, however, is any significant impact on predicting the outcomes of treatment and possible complications of diseases. Therefore, this theory is not aimed at any general practices.
Testability
This theory is highly testable because there is always an opportunity to change the environment in one way or another. Furthermore, this theory – as a basis for future medical practices – generated a vast amount of research focused not only on adjusting environment but also on inventing new components that may be brought to it in order to increase the effectiveness of treatment. Many other types of research were focused on the problem of this model’s lack of anticipation of possible outcomes of caring procedures. There were attempts at including the anticipation component in the Environmental Model, but these attempts are still far from completion.
Overall Evaluation
This model is quite specific regarding environment improvement because it prescribes a number of necessary means that will contribute to treating a patient. Even in the larger scale of healthcare, this theory is still rather narrow and aimed only at specific improvements of environment. However, it is still rather comprehensive as it describes the necessary environment in high details. The fact that this theory is still applied in the nursing practice speaks for itself.
To summarize, this theory has a number of strengths. Namely its detailed description of necessary components that improve patient’s environment, and description of necessary means that allow this environment to be safe and aseptic. Nevertheless, the theory also has a weakness. Its weakness is that it does not include any possibility of predicting the possible complications and outcomes of treatment.
Therefore, since the prescriptions of this theory became a kind of standard in nursing procedures, it is highly advised that I would use this theory in my advanced practice. This way I would be able to ensure that the patient is in a safe and healthy environment which will contribute to their faster recovery.
References
Lee, G., Clark, A. M., & Thompson, D. R. (2013). Florence Nightingale – never more relevant than today. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(2), 245-246.
Medeiros, A. B. A., Enders, B. C., & Lira, A. L. B. C. (2015). The Florence Nightingale’s Environmental Theory: A critical analysis. Escola Anna Nery, 19(3), 518-524.
Wayne, G. (2014). Florence Nightingale’s Environmental Theory. Web.