Abstract
When developing personal nursing philosophy, one should consider the four meta-paradigms of nursing, viz. the nursing practice, health, human beings, and the environment. These elements define the nursing practice and philosophy and they are highly interconnected to the extent that altering one of them causes a ripple effect on the others. This paper explores the place of the role of these nursing meta-paradigms in the development of personal nursing philosophy. It starts with an introduction before explicating the four meta-paradigms in details. It then covers a personal perspective to these meta-paradigms before giving a conclusion on the issue.
Introduction
Different professional fields are governed by disparate meta-paradigms. By definition, a meta-paradigm conventionally implies a concept that underscores the general world of thought. In other words, meta-paradigms define the thought process in a certain area. In 1984, Jacqueline Fawcett hinted at the four basic meta-paradigms of the nursing profession (Tourville & Ingalls, 2003). In 2003, Lynn Basford and Oliver Slevin revised these meta-paradigms and came up with four different elements, viz. human beings, health, nursing, and the environment, which underscore the nursing meta-paradigms in the contemporary nursing profession. Each of these four meta-paradigms assists in developing personal nursing philosophy in different ways (Macrohon & Loriaga, 2012). This paper explores the four factors influencing the development of personal nursing philosophy coupled with their interrelationships to one another from a personal perspective.
Factors influencing the development of personal nursing philosophy
As aforementioned, the development of personal nursing philosophy is subject to the four meta-paradigms, viz. human beings, health, nursing, and environment.
Human beings
Human beings form the core subjects in the development of personal nursing philosophy. In the context of nursing, human beings change from ‘persons’ to ‘subjects’. As such, these subjects are unique and they should not be viewed as objects of professional care. Human subjects in the nursing profession include individuals, family members, and communities that define a person. In this context, human subjects are holistic beings and any interpretations made in a bid to understand them should not be taken as parts. In other words, parts of these subjects cannot be used to make conclusive observations concerning the patient. According to Fawcett and Lee (2013), “humans, as holistic beings, are unique, dynamic, sentient, and multidimensional, capable of abstract reasoning, creativity, aesthetic appreciation, and self-responsibility” (p.97). Therefore, when developing personal nursing philosophy, one should take into account all these aspects in a bid to come up with an inclusive philosophy that takes care of all patients’ needs indiscriminately.
Health
According to Masters (2011), health is “the state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing and it not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (p.83). From this understanding, health covers a wide range of aspects when developing personal nursing philosophy. Health covers more than the state of being sick or well. It entails moral, social, aesthetic, and physical elements. Therefore, from this perspective, health underscores “the lived experience of congruence between one’s possibilities and one’s realities and it is based on caring and feeling cared for” (Basford & Slevin, 2003, p.83). In the same context, illness becomes a dysfunction of any of the aforementioned aspects. However, the dysfunction can be rectified through caring relationships. On the same note, the individual suffering from the dysfunction plays a key role in the recovery process in terms of how s/he approaches the coping strategy. In a recap, the state of health is the product of the interaction between people and their environments, and thus individuals should consider this realization when developing personal nursing philosophy.
Environment
The environment within which a patient is placed plays a vital role in the recovery process. In the development of personal nursing philosophy, environment underscores “the totality of all things that impact on the recovery of the patient including home life, mental state, addictions, physical pain, chances of relapse, rewarding work, and a host of other variables” (Basford & Slevin, 2003, p.106). In this context, environment falls into two broad categories, viz. physical and socioeconomic environments. Under the physical environment, a patient encounters issues associated with the atmosphere, weather, organisms, and pollutants among others. These elements can contribute to the deterioration or recovery process of the patient. On the other side, socioeconomic environment entails people surrounding the patient, beliefs, cultures, and all other socioeconomic aspects in society.
Nursing
According to Basford and Slevin (2003), nursing is “an art through which the practitioner of nursing gives specialized assistance to persons with disabilities that needed greater than ordinary assistance to meet the daily needs for self-care” (p.102). Just like meta-paradigms, which cover general knowledge on a particular aspect, the practice of nursing is broad as it comes out as an academic discipline while at the same time being a professional practice. However, the academic aspect of nursing merges with the professional side of it when trained nurses use the gained knowledge to provide human care to patients in a professional set up. Giving care to human beings forms the central moral idea of the nursing practice, hence playing a key role in the development of personal nursing philosophy.
Define, describe, explain personal thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, and summarize the interrelationships
From a personal perspective, human beings play a critical role in the development of personal nursing philosophy. I believe that without human beings, the nursing profession would not exist because nurses need patients in a bid to complete the practice. Therefore, with this understanding, I hold that human beings should be regarded highly in the development of personal nursing philosophy. Given that human beings are unique beings, one’s philosophy should be dynamic to accommodate all the aspects that make a ‘person’.
On nursing, I think nurses are key determinants in the recovery and well-being of patients. The information and skills gathered from the academic aspect of nursing are useless unless they are applied in real working setup to provide and foster human care. Nurses undergo thorough training in a bid to equip them for the real task of taking care of human subjects. Therefore, given that human care forms the central aspect of the nursing practice, nurses in the nursing profession should always endeavor to offer care indiscriminately. Morality and ethics should define the practice of nursing always.
I believe that the environment plays a key role in the wellbeing of patients. Conventionally, the majority of sicknesses arise from predisposing environments and if people avoided such environments, they would avoid most illnesses. Therefore, as a nurse, I have the responsibility of ensuring healthy living environments especially through advising patients on how to create and maintain such environments. I can also influence the socioeconomic environment by talking to the people surrounding a patient or pushing for legislations that would change the wellbeing of my patients.
Finally, my definition of health is the holistic wellbeing of individuals. In my personal nursing philosophy, I believe that I should go beyond taking care of physical illnesses and reach out to the patient’s soul and heart. This aspect introduces the concept of connectedness whereby I believe that I should connect with my client to ensure that s/he gets holistic treatment.
All these nursing meta-paradigms are interconnected. The nursing practice and human beings work hand-in-hand. Without human subjects, the nursing practice would be meaningless and nonexistent. Similarly, without the nursing practice, patients would suffer greatly due to lack of care. Similarly, health and environment are inseparable as the majority of health issues emanate from the environment. All these meta-paradigms are highly interconnected such that an effect from one causes a domino effect on the others. For instance, poor environment causes a health problem to an individual who then goes to a nurse for treatment.
Conclusion
The development of personal nursing philosophy is subject to four major meta-paradigms, viz. health, nursing, human beings, and the environment. These meta-paradigms are highly interconnected to the extent that a change in one causes effects in other elements as shown in this paper. The nursing practice and human beings work hand in hand and the absence of one renders the other useless. The academic aspect of the nursing practice only becomes meaningful when applied in the nursing profession to deliver human care to patients. In the development of my personal nursing philosophy, I think all the four meta-paradigms are indispensable, and thus I take them seriously in the quest to foster nursing and human care.
References
Basford, L., & Slevin, O. (2003). Theory and Practice of Nursing: An Integrated Approach to Caring Practice.
Fawcett, J., & Lee, R. (2013). The influence of the metaparadigm of nursing on professional identity development among RN-BSN Students. Nursing Science Quarterly, 26 (1), 96-98.
Macrohon, M., & Loriaga, A. (2012). Nursing as a caring theory: Metaparadigm. Web.
Masters, K. (2011). Nursing theories: A framework for professional practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Tourville, C., & Ingalls, K. (2003). The living tree of nursing theories. Web.