American Nurses Association's Metaparadigm Theories Of Nursing

46). Subsequently, the meta-paradigm of nursing consists four major concepts which define nursing practice in general. These concepts are the person, health, environment and nursing. A person is defined as “unique beings who are in the midst of becoming and whose wholeness is made manifest in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors” (Swanson, 1993, p. 352). There are also five caring processes outlined in Swanson’s theory: Knowing, Being with, Enabling, Doing for, and Maintaining belief (Smith, Turkel, & Wolf,

According to the “level of knowledge slide”, there is only one metaparadigm of nursing that consist of four concepts. A metaparadigm is unique, has neutral perspective, includes interest and global in scope and content. However Denisco and Barker, mentioned the four metaparadigm of nursing instead of four metaparadigm concept of nursing. The metaparadigm nursing is represented by four concepts, namely person, environment, health and nursing and recurring themes. The first theme is the relationship between person and health.

Philosophy of Nursing Everyone’s values and beliefs about the profession of nursing are all different. The four concepts of nursing are interrelated and all mean something different to every person, too. Throughout this paper, I will be reflecting on my values and beliefs about nursing through the four concepts while comparing them to a nursing theorist with views that are most similar to my own.

The first concept of the nursing metaparadigm is nursing. My philosophy of nursing recognizes the important role the nurse has to deliver care. It is the therapeutic and mutual relationship between nurse and patient that is “the foundation of nursing practice” (End of life, 2016, p. 4). Nurses must understand how they affect patients because every interaction a nurse has with a patient has an impact on their care.

Nursing Metaparadigm The metaparadigms in nursing knowledge are human beings, environment, health, and nursing. Nursing Philosophy

Nursing Theory According to Chinn & Kramer (2011), theory is defined as “creative and rigorous structure of ideas that project a tentative, purposeful and systemic view of phenomena” (as cited in McEwen & Wills, 2014, pg. 25). In addition, a theory is a set of assumptions, principles, or propositions that explain or guide actions. Before nursing theory, the nursing practice was not guided by any research or rational but mostly by traditional or ritualistic tasks. Therefore, the nursing theory emerged to clarify nursing practice with intellectual and interactional domains and to illustrate nursing practice as an expert practice rather than just carrying out tasks (McEwen & Wills, 2014).

Being a nurse is not always as easy and picture perfect as people paint it to be. A nurse is expected to act perfectly professional, even when tears, anger and all-around emotions are begging to come out. A nurse must always be the one that has their life together, especially when others do not. They are there to be the ones to hold and care for others in desperate times of need. Nurses are expected to be more than just a nurse, but rather an advocate, caregiver, support system and professional.

What does nursing mean to me? Nursing means helping people heal, meeting their needs while they are in your care, listening to concerns, protecting them from harm, and educating them how to care for themselves while treating them with dignity, compassion and respect and giving of yourself to the care of people and community. It is having compassion for people and their health and being a humanitarian, making sure they receive the best care possible. Nurses must also treat families of patients with kindness, realizing they are going through a stressful situation also. Nursing is a responsibility to provide the best care regardless of the patient’s age, race, religion, sex, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or their past.

I have found that as I read through the different nursing theorist and their theories it is important to have an understanding of your own definition of the different concepts such as what is environment, nursing, health, or a person. I believe that in having your own definition then you can better understand the pros and cons to the nursing theories that have been published over the years. I also that when reading through nursing theories it is important to think about how you either already use or could use some of the different models. I believe that when you are able to identify how you personally could apply some of the models or theories then you will be better able to understand the model and may even be able to see ways of improving the model to make it more relevant.

4. When none of above can be achieved, nursing have to meet the individual’s self-care needs directly. According to Dorothea Orem, the four metapardigm concepts are interrelated. The person is the central focus of nursing care, whereas a person’s health is mediated by his/her environment.

Nursing theory provides the professional nurse with a foundation to build upon. Warelaw (2013) states, as nursing continues to grow and evolve, maintaining our unique body of knowledge and skills is critical. Nurses frequently perform skills and tasks once completed by physicians; preventing the blurring of professional boundaries is crucial, theory maintains boundaries. According to McCrae (2011), the nursing profession and practice must remain grounded in theory, doing so enhances nursing practice, research, and education, empowering the practitioner in their clinical decision making and practice. As Alligood (2014) notes, theory provides a systematic approach in which the professional nurse synthesizes skills and knowledge from multiple

It is where the theory came from or originated from (McEwen, 2014). It is also important to ask yourself what is the theorists assuming about nursing? (McEwen, 2014). 2. Unique focus: Here you are looking at the “distinctive views of the metaparadigm concepts” (McEwan, 2014, p. 101).

Nursing is practiced all over the world, including different generations that have several definition of nursing. The nursing metaparadigm represents the broadest viewpoint of nursing. The metapargidm of nursing has four concepts including person, health, environment and nursing (Parker & Smith, 2010). These four concepts build on each other to represent a philosophy of nursing to oneself. The nursing metaparadigm is significant to my nursing practice and my philosophy of nursing.

In order to determine how a nurse works as a professional, it is important to first define the duties of a nurse. Potter et al. says that according to the American Nurses Association, it includes: "the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities; prevention of illness and injury; alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response; and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations" (2015, p. 2). While ideas of what constitutes professionalism in the field of nursing have long remained the same, nurses are now held to an even higher standard.

Personal Definition: Nursing is a combination or compassion, collaborating and ethical behaviors to maximize the health and environment of the one's in need. Nursing needs to have compassion to assist with whole heart and have drive to make decisions knowing it only makes the situation better or more comfortable. Collaborating with all who is involved with the care of the sick, whether its the family, doctors, other nurses or anyone who is there assisting with the sick. Ethical behavior is a must nursing. Making ethical decisions benefits the person in need and the nurse as well.