Nursing has changed over time to meet the changing needs of the patients. These changes have been taken from the nursing theories that offer insights into new ways of improving healthcare. The nursing theories have helped nurses to provide better services to the patients by providing improved ways of assessing, intervening, and evaluating the quality of the services delivered. The paper consists of a nursing bibliography, the four nursing metaparadigms, specific concepts, and the propositions connecting the specific concepts discussed.
Autobiography
I have found the nursing profession as both a challenge and a prize in my life. I do not regret making a choice of becoming a nurse because since I was young, I have always wanted to help others and appreciate the community that has seen me be who I am, and I found nursing the best profession to help me achieve this. Nursing, as a profession, has provided me with opportunities to improve the quality of healthcare provided to patients. I began my career as a clinical officer, moved to a surgical officer, and later on a Telephonic Case Manager. Throughout my career, I have been working to improve patient care, and this I have done with a lot of satisfaction.
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I have always wanted to bring about change in the nursing profession, and this has seen me enroll for a master's degree in informatics. I believe this will make me the change agent I have always aspired to be. The informatics is also helpful in ensuring that documentation is simplified and does not disrupt the quality of service delivery to the patients. As a nurse, I am a caregiver, a change agent, a teacher, and a critical thinker who always seeks to improve the quality of healthcare.
Metaparadigms
Metaparadigm is the central issue of any discipline. Just like any other discipline, nursing has its own metaparadigms. Butts and Rich (2018) point out that nursing metaparadigms are people, the environment, health, and nursing. The metaparadigms listed above affect the quality of the healthcare offered to the patients.
Patient
A patient is a person who receives healthcare. The patient's personality, social class, family, and friends around the patient affect the health care quality the patient receives. According to Thompson (2017), a patient is a person who is the model's focus. Healthcare revolves around the patient. Personal experiences and the environment of the patient affect the healthcare given.
Nurse
The nurse metaparadigm consists of delivering knowledge, use of skills, and collaborating with other resources to ensure that a patient gets the best quality. The nurses should understand the patient, the environment, the health, and other factors in order to deliver quality healthcare services. Virginia Henderson argues that the nurse's role is to assist the patients to perform the activities that will assist the patient so that they recover as fast as possible (Thompson, 2016). Thus, nurses play a bigger role in the provision of quality healthcare.
Health
The health metaparadigm is the patient's well-being and access to the medical facilities for wellness. Wellness is defined in terms of physical, psychological, spiritual, and social well-being.
Environment
The environment is the patient's internal and external surroundings that affect them. Branch, et al. (2016) observe that the patient’s environment included the socialization with friends and family, physical location, socio-economic level, and culture. A person has the ability to modify the surrounding well-being. For example, when the temperatures are too high, one may fan the house in order to be well. The relationship with family can also be modified through a change in attitude or communication.
Additional Concepts
Informatics and advocacy are two concepts I find useful in the nursing profession. Informatics is a concept that deals with the integration of nursing and information management sciences useful in the nursing field. Information technology helps nurses and patients to access information necessary for improving health and healthcare service delivery. Communication is very important in the nursing profession. Advocacy entails using the power bestowed on a person to champion the cause of others. It is the work of nurses to initiate changes to cater to the needs of patients. I have applied advocacy in my interaction with patients by listening to their health issues and giving them necessary information, then directing them to people who can help them better. Severally, I have been in a group of nurses who have defended policies that are helpful to the patients and the nurses. The combination of informatics and advocacy has helped in improving healthcare quality.
Propositions
The propositions provided below are related to the concepts discussed above and will be useful in improving the quality of healthcare services.
1. Advocacy should be used in order to enable the patients to make well-informed decisions regarding healthcare.
2. Nurses should be well-informed, and information should be shared with other healthcare givers. Informatics is, therefore, very useful to any nurse.
3. Nurses should always be flexible and change champions to improve healthcare.
4. Healthcare givers should understand the different metaparadigms that are involved in healthcare provision.
5. The patient should be aware of the various factors that affect their response to healthcare services.
In conclusion, the metaparadigms of nursing are health, patient, nurse, and environment. All metaparadigms affect healthcare service delivery. Informatics and advocacy are two concepts that are useful in nursing. Through advocacy, nurses initiate changes and champion for the cause of the patients, while informatics enables the nurses and patients to access information that can be used to improve healthcare.
References
Branch, C., Deak, H., Hiner, C., & Holzwart, T. (2016). Four Nursing Metaparadigms. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/353288130/Nursing-Paradigm
Butts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (2010). Philosophies and theories for advanced nursing practice (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/#/books/9781284143010
Thompson, C. (2017). What is the Nursing Metaparadigm? Retrieved from https://nursingeducationexpert.com/metaparadigm/