Concept Synthesis on Personal Nursing Philosophy

Nursing is a definite professional discipline (Alligood, 2013, p. 22). It presupposes that patients should be provided with individualized high-quality care in order to fulfill their personalized requirements. Thus, the ability to achieve this objective as a health professional, it is highly important to ground individual nursing services on the four fundamental metaparadigms that universally direct the nursing profession (Alligood, 2014, p. 31). Generally speaking, a meta paradigm operates in a form of a spine bone, which can be utilized as a grounding for the nursing profession, as all nurses are able to refer to it prior to making any clinical judgment (Alligood, 2014, p. 31). The four fundamental metaparadigms of nursing regard a person, the environment, nursing practice and a patient’s health status (Alligood, 2014, p. 31). Various scholars utilized numerous nursing theories regarding four fundamental metaparadigms, but each of these theories provides a discrepant perspective concerning their impact on a patient’s well-being and his/her medical state at any given time (Fawcett & DeSanto-Madeya, 2013, p. 54). As a matter of fact, the metaparadigm notions are outlined and connected by these theories in a highly different manner. The current paper demonstrates these metaparadigms separately at the same time providing a personal input regarding the four components interaction and influence on patients’ well-being, which has always been my individual agenda.

Nursing Theories Regarding four Fundamental Metaparadigms

Person Component

The concept of a ‘person’ majorly focuses on an individual’s health care requirements, spiritual needs and most essentially societal needs regarding family connections and other individual groups concerned as important by an individual (Alligood, 2014, p. 363). The state of individual health is a result of a complicated interaction of both societal and physical facets of life. Different nursing theories present discrepant information regarding this component, but Rodgers theory vividly demonstrates that a unitary human being evolves through three principles, including helices, resonance, and integrality (Alligood, 2014, p. 221). The combination of these principles formulates the concept of hemodynamics (Alligood, 2014, p. 221). Therefore, a person appears as an irreducible, reversible, pan-dimensional, negentropic energy field, which can be defined by patterns and develops through three above-mentioned principles (Alligood, 2014, p. 221). The helices principles help to outline the dubious but incessant, nonlinear evolvement of energy fields, as indicated through a spiral development reflecting the character of alterations (Alligood, 2014, p. 222). Resonance is demonstrated as a wave frequency and an energy field pattern evolution from lower to higher frequency wave patterns, and it reflects the continues variability of the human energy field as it alters (Alligood, 2014, p. 222). The principle of integrity focuses on the incessant reciprocal processes of the person and the environment (Sitzman & Eichelberger, 2011, p. 232). On the other hand, the Watson’s nursing theory and science of caring, the person concept are outlined as an incarnated spirit, which can be characterized as the unification of body, mind, and nature (Sitzman & Eichelberger, 2011, p. 401). The major goal of nursing appears as an ability to assist individuals in attaining a higher level of harmony within the three above-mentioned constituents. Therefore, a person appears as a recipient of nursing care who is composed of biological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual components (Sitzman & Eichelberger, 2011, p. 410).

The individual practice helped in understanding that low self-esteem and decreased self-regard combined with stress have a tendency to hinder recovery in the majority of cases. Therefore, my individual nursing practice demonstrates that it is significant to utilize personal initiative in order to reassure each individual patient and apply a holistic approach to health care, which ultimately assists in sustaining patients’ calmness and certainty. The assessment of patients’ requirements and individual settings helps to learn how to respect the uniqueness of each patient and their perspectives regarding life.

Environment Component

The second metaparadigm, which regards the environment, concentrates on how interplay with the extensive and general surrounding affects the health of a person as a patient. The environmental impacts might be either external or internal (Fitzpatrick & McCarthy, 2014, p. 142). Apart from the physical setting, which incorporates the geographical location, societal, cultural, technological and economic facets of the setting also perform a significant function in a patient’s wellbeing.

Thus, for instance, Callista Roy’s adaptation model suggests that the environment incorporating earth resources, which formulate conduct, can be utilized to impact health positively via stimulating patients to cope with the environmental facets, which cannot be changed (Alligood, 2013, p. 51). The copying procedure results in optimum health and enhanced caliber of life. This model reveals three adaptation levels, incorporating integrated, compensatory and comprised life processes. These three levels do not sustain as constant due to the fact that alterations appear as inevitable from time to time (Alligood, 2013, p. 52). The major function of nursing, in this case, regards fostering a patient’s successful adaptation. Moreover, Roy’s adaptation model identifies three classes of environmental stimuli. First, it is the focal stimulus, which stands for the external or internal incentive appearing most instantly in the awareness of an individual or a group (Alligood, 2013, p. 52). The second stands for the contextual stimuli, which regards all other stimuli appearing in the situation, which actually contributes to the impacts of the focal stimulus (Alligood, 2013, p. 52). Finally, the third one concerns the residual stimuli, which stands for environmental agents within or outside human systems, the impacts of which appear as obscure in any given situation (Alligood, 2013, p. 52). On the other hand, Kings nursing theory model claims that human beings evolve in regards with their external setting, at the same time, when the internal setting concerns the energy, which provides them with a possibility to cope with alterations appearing in the external setting (Sitzman & Eichelberger 2011, p. 156). Generally speaking, this metaparadigm has altered my individual assessment, providing the ability to focus on both individual perspective and a patient as well. Effective communication helps in understanding patients’ environment better and shows how to advise them in accordance with their external and internal setting. This is a method that helps in achieving a shared goal of a patient’s recovery.

Health Component

The third metaparadigm regards health, and it stands for the general well-being of any person. Benner’s nursing philosophy claims that the genetic composition of an individual usually predisposes an individual to specific diseases but the only interplay with secondary agents ultimately defines whether the disease occurs or not, as these agents might enhance the hazards resulting in disease (Alligood, 2013, p. 45). Therefore, it does not appear as unusual for patients to have a disease particularly during the asymptomatic stage and even being unable to apprehend themselves as ill (Alligood, 2013, p. 47). Therefore, Benner acknowledges that health appears as human experience. On the other hand, Watson defines health as harmony, wholeness, and comfort (Alligood, 2013, p. 107). On contrary to the previous statement, Roger outlines that health and illness appear as a part of a continuum. The practice reveals that all clients have a discrepant inherent approach regarding stress/illness and coping with it (Alligood, 2014, p. 221). The genuine understanding of health, illness, and wellness is a paramount significance for the individual nursing practice because it assists in comprehending that at times it is more appropriate to apply placebos in order to restore the wellness of patients who appear to be ill but actually have no diseases. Moreover, it is highly important to understand that health is not an absolute term but a relative one, due to the fact that what is healthy in one person may indicate weak health in another person.

Nursing Component

The nursing component is the one that incorporates the delivery of high-quality health services to a patient for optimum health results. It encompasses but is not restricted to the operations applied to start from the time of a patient’s arrival, which incorporate therapeutic nursing interventions that are combined with the properties and characteristics of the health worker providing care regarding their clinical judgment capabilities (Fawcett & DeSanto-Madeya, 2013, p. 206). Thus, a nurse who is an active participant attains protection, promotion, and preservation of human dignity. Generally speaking, the major function of a nurse is to assist patients during interpersonal connections and therapeutic management of their setting, which is objected at advocating health and well-being (Fawcett & DeSanto-Madeya, 2013, p. 208). Thus, nursing appears as both an academic discipline and professional practice. Therefore, it is directed by the values of human freedom, the choices they make in accordance with the provided responsibilities. Critical thinking is an integral part of a nursing career due to the fact that it guides a professional into making the appropriate judgments in providing evidence-based care to patients in the attempt of achieving an optimum level of health in discrepant nursing contexts (Alligood, 2014, p. 65). On the other hand, Nightingale’s nursing model suggests that nursing is supposed to alter or manage the environment to implement the natural laws of health (Alligood, 2014, p. 3). Henderson suggests that the main objective of nursing is to assist a person, both sick and well in their performance of activities (which incorporate 14 components of basic nursing care) and assist an individual in attaining independence as rapidly as possible (Alligood, 2013, p. 21). Finally, Watson demonstrates that nursing should appear as a reciprocal transpersonal relationship in caring moments guided by creative agents and Caritas operations (Alligood, 2013, p. 106). The individual practice demonstrated that a nurse should be engaged in a form of an active partner in human care operations with people during the whole life span. Thus, caring appears to be the main source of power, which allows acting autonomously, while attempting to empower patients via sharing their experiences and passing knowledge. Moreover, it is highly important to incorporate decision-making processes, problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, intellectual and technical capabilities in nursing care via collaboration with other health care providers. Nursing suggests that core values should incorporate commitment, mastery of scope and control over the practice in order to obtain attainable standards of health for all clients.

Two Practice-Specific Concepts

The facts demonstrate that concepts are complicated mental formulations of perspectives regarding the personal observation and perceiving of the world. Generally speaking, concepts assist in formulating a specific mental picture regarding different situations. In addition, concepts also perform a function of fundamental building blocks for theories (Marchuk, 2014, p. 266).

The first practice-specific concept concerns health promotion. This concept incorporates individual experiences of communicating with people suffering from chronic illnesses, including cancer and diabetes. The recent years reveal that chronic illnesses demonstrate a capability to provoke negative effects on the national economy. The direct costs incorporated in the search of the medical care combined with the indirect costs (meaning, for example, transportation and the lost working hours in search of medical attention) are actually highly significant. It is obvious that patients suffering from the above-mentioned diseases might not attain recovery, but health professionals, especially nurses can do everything in order to manage cases to prolong life and slows a disease progression rate. Thus, the nurse-patient relationships demonstrate that a nurse is supposed to work to authorize a patient by renovating and retrieving their desire and will to live and not merely give up on life due to the fact that they suffer from conditions that do not have an actual cure (Marchuk, 2014, p. 269). My individual practice helped to acknowledge that health is a matter of social justice and therefore, it should be included in the societal systems of governance. There is no possibility to supply patients with medications or insist on undergoing specific health care procedures without encompassing. Thus, patients should be included in the nurse’s decision-making processes in order to satisfy, while recommendations can actually relieve them of their pain and assist in recovering from a disease. Therefore, the hospital procedures and processes should facilitate a patient’s authorization, as it can enhance a patient’s satisfaction with the provided care (Marchuk, 2014, p. 269). Moreover, the individual nursing practice vividly demonstrates that transformational leadership is significant in regards to health promotion due to its responsive nature. Thus, senior health professionals are supposed to be visionary and work towards affecting the whole health care team to accomplish the set objectives, which are supposed to regard the patient’s health promotion.

The second practice-specific concept regards evidence-informed practices. It can be outlined as the practice that integrates clinical expertise/practice and patient valuables with the best research evidence accessible (Marchuk, 2014, p. 270). My individual practice helped to define several benefits of applying evidence-based practice in health care on the basis of the fact that patients receive and adopt recommended care on a fundamental ground of genuine trust. I have witnessed a situation when one woman went to the hospital and was labeled as having breast cancer. On the basis of this diagnosis, the health professional recommended her to undergo chemotherapy in order to control the existing hazard. Nevertheless, this woman decided to get a consultation in our clinical setting and our health care provider decided to take samples of tissues from the lump. After their research, it was discovered that the lump was not cancerous. The adherence to the first recommendations would actually traumatize this woman together with her family, resulting in serious stress and solid unreasonable financial strain. Therefore, it becomes obvious that evidence-based care can actually support or reject the decisions made by health care providers together with boosting the image of clinical organizations, which embrace this practice as their approach (Marchuk, 2014, p. 272). This practice allows defending the provided and delivered care and justifies required additional expenses (Marchuk, 2014, p. 272).

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List of Propositions

A proposition is a structural constituent of a theory that creates a connection between concepts (Alligood, 2013, p. 43). The discussed metaparadigms help to derive the following propositions.

1. It is feasible for any individual to manage their personal health via positive self-image and self-regard, which should be combined with behavioral practices that promote good health.

2. Change-subjected environmental agents should be altered in order to enhance individual health and well-being.

3. Emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, and societal well-being should be analyzed and regarded during care due to the fact that they can impact a patient’s well-being and health.

4. The conflict or misunderstanding between a patient’s stress and care provided presupposes that stress might inhibit the recovery.

5. Nursing should regard the care in the clinical setting only, as it should also incorporate a deeper comprehending of all feasible agents, impacting a patient’s health and well-being.