The foundation of any given profession involves the development of a specialized body of knowledge. The same is true for the nursing profession, as practitioners in the field should develop theories applicable to the profession. The metaparadigm concepts in nursing constitute the primary issues in the discipline. Four of the main concepts in the field include an individual, health, the environment, and nursing. Each of the identified metaparadigms plays a vital role in the nursing process, including the provision of care to patients. In addition to looking into the tenets of Florence Nightingale's philosophy of nursing, it will be vital to explore my nursing philosophy. The personal nursing philosophy considered will be a guide to my nursing career.
The four nursing metaparadigms form the foundation of the nursing profession. Depending on the needs of a given patient, nurses should prioritize the metaparadigms. Following the need to consider the needs of a patient, my philosophy in nursing involves the provision of a holistic as well as unbiased care. My approach to the profession involves the disregard of the spiritual beliefs of patients, their racial background, possible disabilities, and their lifestyle choices. The care provided to patients should be based on the metaparadigms, as they are crucial to the provision of patient care (Oliveira et al., 2015). It would be difficult to execute treatment plans efficiently without considering all the four metaparadigms.
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One of the metaparadigms, a person, can be considered as more than a single patient. In this regard, when providing care, a nurse should consider the concerns of the family members of the patient, as they might assist in making care decisions whenever the patient is not able to make an informed decision regarding his or her care (Oliveira et al., 2015). The concept of the patient as a person could be regarded as a critical metaparadigm, as nurses can only provide care to people. When providing care, it would be vital for a nurse to be nurturing, including showing patient affection when working to improve their wellbeing. It would be possible to indicate that the attitude of a nurse can work positively towards improving the wellbeing of their patients.
The other metaparadigm, health, can be regarded as a variable concept, as patients have dissimilar needs. For instance, an older patient might be feeling healthy, mainly because of the absence of any form of pain. However, other people might consider the patients as unhealthy, considering the difficulty associated with ascertaining the health difficulty that the older patient might be having. Based on the concept of health, nurses should be in a position of assessing the needs of a patient and provide appropriate care based on the condition of the patient (Oliveira et al., 2015). The need to address the individual concerns of the patient should be based on the health continuum of ensuring the wellness of patients, considering that their health is subject to changes.
The third metaparadigm, environment, plays a significant role in ensuring the sustenance of people's health, including their recovery from possible illness. According to Tunlind, Granström, and Engström (2015), the environment plays a significant role in the recovery, as nurses should provide patients with care within suitable conditions of nature. Given the importance of this metaparadigm, it would be vital for nurses to ensure the comfort of their patients. It would be possible for the health of a patient to deteriorate whenever he or she is exposed to discomfort or in an environment that can expose the patient to risks. According to Bahramnezhad et al. (2015), the foundation of nursing knowledge is based on views related to the relationship between human beings and their environment. For this reason, nurses should focus on ensuring that the environment in which they provide care should be supportive of the wellbeing of patients.
The fourth metaparadigm is nursing. This paradigm focuses on the skills and knowledge of the nurses, as they determine the objectives or boundaries of the field. Nursing theories provide an avenue for knowledge in providing care, including the problem-solving methods that have to follow international agreements to be followed in the field (Bahramnezhad et al., 2015). The boundaries of this metaparadigm are reflected in the nursing culture, the experiences of individual nurses, and the values and ethical considerations to be made in care events. Bahramnezhad et al. (2015) refer to Margaret Newman’s belief about nursing to indicate that the profession is moving towards the provision of holistic care. The nursing metaparadigm advocates for the need for nurses to have the needed attributes in the provision of care as a whole.
My nursing philosophy correlates with different provisions advocated for by Florence Nightingale. Nightingale could be regarded as the founder of modern nursing, as her perspective towards providing care was not only based on providing holistic care but also integrative care, as nurses should focus on both human and nonhuman provisions (Oliveira et al., 2015). Nightingale’s philosophy revolves around the need for nurses to manage their patients in a suitable environment. Nightingale recognized the need to ensure that patients are taken care of in a clean environment characterized by the availability of clean water, natural lighting, and proper ventilation (Macher et al., 2019). These elements form the foundation of my nursing philosophy, as an ideal environment is vital to supporting the wellbeing of patients.
Based on the need for having a suitable environment for supporting the health of patients, the environment metaparadigm appears to have been the basis of Nightingale’s advocacy. The need to have a clean environment can be presumed to be the foundation of the theories advocating for positive changes in the care environment to ensure that patients' health improves significantly. By controlling the environment in which care is provided, which includes ensuring proper sanitation, is presumed to be a primary factor for the achievement of health (Macher et al., 2019). For this reason, my nursing philosophy is hinged upon the manipulation of the environment in a way that can facilitate the healing as well as the restoration of the health of a patient.
In light of the presented nursing philosophy, nursing should focus on doing all things necessary to assist patients. The fundamental aim of the four metaparadigms relates to the need to establish a healthcare model that views the patient as an individual that has to be provided with the most suitable environment where he could live and interact freely. The appropriateness of the environment cannot be emphasized on, as some of the risks that the patients can face emanating from their environment. Through the application of suitable nursing theories during the provision of care, the health and wellbeing of individuals in a given community will thrive.
References
Bahramnezhad, F., Shiri, M., Asgari, P., & Afshar, P. F. (2015). A review of the nursing paradigm. Open Journal of Nursing , 5 (1), 17-23.
Macher, J. M., Gold, D., Cruz, P., Kyle, J. L., Durrani, T. S., & Shusterman, D. (2019). Evaluation and management of exposure to infectious agents. Handbook of Occupational Safety and Health , 147-197.
Oliveira, R. M., Leitao, I. M. T. D. A., Aguiar, L. L., Oliveira, A. C. D. S., Gazos, D. M., Silva, L. M. S. D., ... & Sampaio, R. L. (2015). Evaluating the intervening factors in patient safety: focusing on hospital nursing staff. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP , 49 (1), 104-113.
Tunlind, A., Granström, J., & Engström, Å. (2015). Nursing care in a high-technological environment: Experiences of critical care nurses. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing , 31 (2), 116-123.
