Philosophy of Nursing Paper

Philosophy of Nursinginstitution
Date
Introduction
The nursing theory is based on the meta-paradigm of nursing which has four parts namely the environment, the person, the nursing skills, and health as shown in (The College of New Jersey…, 2014). In this context, person refers to the patient and his or her family members. The nurse is expected to provide information that will guide the decision making by the person in accessing healthcare (Thorne, Canam, Dahinten, Hall, Henderson, & Kirkham, 1998). The environment represents all aspects around the person that can cause illness and also affect recovery (The College of New Jersey…, 2014). Internal and external environment are considered for instance the mental state and geographical location respectively. Health refers to the patient health condition as well as the accessibility of healthcare services as shown in (Jarrin, 2012). The last element is nursing which refers to the skills and knowledge that an individual requires to qualify to be a nurse (Jarrin, 2012). Philosophies provide the framework for nursing practice through a reasonable and logical concept. Various nursing theories are used to explain the philosophies applied in the practice of nursing.
The philosophy of nursing from a theoretical point of view
Florence Nightingale came up with the concept of nursing theory, but the theory did not get the attention of nurses until the 1950s as shown in (Masters, 2014). The use of theory to guide nursing practice and research started in the 1980s.

Various theoretical philosophies were created to help explain the four parts of the meta-paradigm of nursing.
The health promotion model by Nola Pender
The health promotion model is dedicated to explaining various dimensions of people as they interact at interpersonal and physical environment levels in seeking healthcare. The following elements define the characteristic of Pender’s theory; first, the characteristics of individual and their experiences (Masters, 2014). Second, the behavior-specific perception and affect. The last one is the outcomes of the behavior. This theory focuses on the person and defines persona; factors such biological factors, socio-cultural factors, and psychological factors (Masters, 2014). Some of the personal factors can be changed while some cannot be changed in the quest for improving health status. The behavior-specific perceptions are those behavior-specific variables valuable in motivation. The nursing interventions target these variables since they can be changed to suit different situations in the nursing practices. The behavior specific cognition and affect used in the health promotion model include the perceived benefit by taking an action, the barrier perceived in taking the action, the perception of self-efficacy in implementing the action successfully, and lastly the effect of taking action. The perceived benefits include the positive outcome that is anticipated by performing the healthy behavior (Masters, 2014). The perceived barrier includes the real or imagined inhibitors or costs of performing the behavior. Self-efficacy refers to the assessment of personal capacity to successfully perform a behavior that promotes health. Effects related to an activity, the subjective feelings either positive or negative that occurs before, during, and after the performance of behavior based on the properties of the stimulus required to perform the behavior. The affects related to activity also has an effect on self-efficacy for performing a healthy behavior. The health promotion model, the commitment of an individual to an action plan is the foundation for a behavioral event. The model focus of raising the awareness of the behaviors that promote good health, promoting self-efficacy, promoting behavior change, making a suitable environment for change of behavior, and barrier management. The nurse assists the person in achieving the change, in a suitable environment, to reach the highest level of health.
The adaptation model of nursing
The theory was pioneered by Callista Roy’s whose aim was to define provisions the nursing science. The theory defined an individual as a set of related systems that was struggling to sustain an equilibrium between various stimuli (Vera, 2014). The major concepts in her theory included; The person, her theory suggested that people are holistic beings who constantly interact with their environment. To respond to the stimuli within the environment, people have developed a system of adaptation that is both innate and acquired. The environment, include the conditions, circumstances, and influences affecting the development and behavior of people as adaptive systems (Vera, 2014). The environment could either be positive of negative stimuli that require people to adapt. Roy’s theory categorized the stimuli into three. The first was focal stimuli which confront the systems of human beings and require a lot of attention. The second one is contextual stimuli present with focal stimuli and contribute to its effect (Vera, 2014). The last one is the residual stimuli, which are the additional elements within the environment but their effects remained unclear. Health is defined by Roy’s as the capacity of people to continue adapting to the stimuli. Illness is part of life and health include the co-existence of health and illness. Human beings need by adapt accordingly to maintain their integrity and avoid being affected negatively. The model by Roy’s suggested that nurses facilitate the adaptation. They conduct an assessment of human behaviors for a positive adaptation by promoting a favorable environment and enhancing a positive reaction towards the stimuli (Vera, 2014). Adaptation is the process and the outcome where a person of a group of people integrate with the environment by choice and conscious awareness. These concepts formed the foundation of the nursing theory by Callista Roy’s.
The meaning of health as a professional.
From a historical context, health was considered human flourishment. The nurse and the patient have a common goal of achieving the highest standard of health. Health is completely mental, social, and physical wellbeing and not merely the absence of illness or an injury. From a nursing perspective, a person may not be suffering from any known illness or have been injured but may seem stressed or disoriented. As nurse should be able to notice the person is suffering from a psychological problem and intervention should be recommended. A nurse may recognize the problem, but it would take the sick person a great deal to understand and accept the diagnosis. Stress when not intervened at its earliest stages, it may aggravate to depression which will hinder the person ability to lead a normal life. It will be a nurse’s responsibility to explain to such a person that he should seek medical care or at least avoid the stress since it will lead to other physical illness such as obesity which is a chronic illness. Social relationships are also important in promoting good health. The quality and quantity of these relationships will determine a person overall health, for instance, people with a social relationship that can contribute to unhealthy behaviors such as binge drinking and abuse of drugs can lead to poor health (Umberson & Montez, 2010). The social relationship that supports healthy behavior, for instance, the performance of physical exercises contributes to good health. In this context, health can be defined from the social relationships point of view.
How do others look at you?
People look at nurses as life savers and indeed they are since they selflessly work to promote the health of patients from the emergency department to inpatient and conduct follow-up to ensure patients enjoy good health. Although this dedication to serving the patient is entrenched in the ethics and code of conduct guiding healthcare provision, it solely depends on a nurse’s choice to uphold these codes and ethics in serving patients. For instance, the code of beneficence requires healthcare providers to provide services that will promote the patient’s interest (Gabel, 2011). People consider nurses responsible for whatever outcome the patient may exhibit. Nurses get credit for patients who recover from their illness, and those who succumb portrays the image of the nurse as careless and unskilled. For a patient to recover or succumb from his illness, many aspects come into play. For instance, the patient immunity, the stage of the illness, the skills knowledge of the nurse in treating the illness among other factors.
Nurses are guided by various principle as they dispense their services. They are expected to show compassion as they serve their clients. They are expected to give people hope as they suffer from their illness and during treatment. Patients trust nurses with their private information to facilitate treatment. Nurse are not expected to share their information with an unauthorized third party (Gabel, 2011). The principle of confidentiality ensures the nurse keep safe the information from any form of misuse of exploitation. The nurses are expected to promote health in the society, by helping to modify the environment. For this to happen the nurse is expected to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge.
In conclusion, the elements of the meta-paradigm of nursing must balance during their interaction. Nurses should be well equipped to promote health in people, the ratio of nurse to people should be reasonable to ensure the nurses are not overworked and hence provide compromise their services. The nurses should help people sustain a conducive environment that promotes health as indicated by various nursing theories.
Reference
Gabel, S. (2011, May). Ethics and values in clinical practice: whom do they help?. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 86, No. 5, p. 421). Mayo Foundation.
Masters, K. (2014). Nursing theories: A framework for professional practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://samples.jbpub.com/9781449691509/81982_CH02_Pass1.pdfJarrin, O. F. (2012). The integrality of situated caring in nursing and the environment. ANS. Advances in nursing science, 35(1), 14.
The college of New Jersey. (2014). Metaparadigm Concepts. Retrieved October 07, 2016, from https://nursing.tcnj.edu/about/mission-and-philosophy/meta-concepts/Thorne, S., Canam, C., Dahinten, S., Hall, W., Henderson, A., & Kirkham, S. R. (1998). Nursing’s metaparadigm concepts: disimpacting the debates. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27(6), 1257-1268.
Umberson, D., & Montez, J. K. (2010). Social relationships and health a flashpoint for health policy. Journal of health and social behavior, 51(1 suppl), S54-S66.
Vera, M. (2014). Sister Callista Roy – Adaptation Model of Nursing – Nurseslabs. Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://nurseslabs.com/sister-callista-roys-adaptation-model/