Reflective Paper Example in Nursing Theory

Nursing theory is the process of some specific elements of real-world discoveries that have a connection to nursing. Nursing meta-paradigm is set of concepts that provide a formation on how the discipline is supposed to work. There are four main ideas that are identified with nursing metaparadigm, they include; environment, health, a person, and nursing. This reflection provides my initial view that I had with respect to the four nursing metaparadigm ideas before studying the materials by a theorist. I will give a summarized description of each metaparadigm idea as presented by Dorothea Orem, who is the author that I presented about in my student group. I would thereafter provide the updated versions of my descriptions to what I think about the four nursing metaparadigms. In addition, the modified descriptions will be in combination with practical experiences that influenced such descriptions.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

1.1 Person

First, I will provide an account of how I would describe a person. A "person" is a human being (living) soul that has emotions and distinct in personality. A person has responsibilities, nutritional needs, money for clothing, and house for life. My understanding of a person came from the interaction with the different individuals during my nursing practice. As I was still working in ICU and NICU, I got the opportunity to interact with many people (persons); male patients, female patients, and children. Therefore, a person in my perspective is a human being who is alive, whether interacting or not interacting with other people in the society and has some values and beliefs. A patient is an example of a person, so as the nurse.

1.2 Environment

Secondly, Environment consists of the surroundings where persons, animals live, plants also come in context. My comprehension of the metaparadigm "environment" as a nurse comes from the things that are around me wherever I go to work. At my place of work, the things that surround me are plants, animals, other communities, vehicles, and buildings. This implies that anything that is in my vicinity forms the environment within which I operate. This environment, as well as physical aspect which combines to shape a person's value and beliefs, personality, and health. In general, the situational factors in the internal and external conditions, a situation that can affect a person physically and mentally.

1.3 Health

Thirdly, health is the state of well-being without of any sickness and injury. When a person who is this case, a patient at my workplace is in a state of stability; without illness, then I would say that a person is in a healthy state. In a situation where the community is free from diseases, then that society is in a healthy state. This implies that health consists of the physical, psychological, and social environment. Physical fitness is whether a person has any illness physically or mentally that make him or her physically or mentally feeble. Mental health concentrates on the mental well-being and a person's ability to carry out undertakings without any psychological restriction.

1.4 Nursing

Nursing is a professional in the healthcare sector who provides care to sick people and behaves in accordance with professional conduct. I am a professional nurse, and I have been one since the time I got the required educational qualifications to practice as a nurse, and I have been providing proper care to people in a professional manner based on the requirements of my profession. It is therefore correct to say that a nurse is an individual who has attained the required level of knowledge to carry out the nursing practice. For instance, I had to undertake several recommended courses before I began practicing nursing. The aim of these courses was to gain the necessary skills and competency for practicing nursing. In that case, I went through a nursing degree general nursing and midwifery for four years at the nursing college. In addition to all this, I also did bridging for safe practice in Canada.

2.0 Author's Definition

2.1 Dorothea Orem

2.1.1 Nursing

Dorothea Orem defines nursing as "an art through which the practitioner of nursing gives a specialized assistance to persons with disabilities of such a character that more than ordinary assistance is necessary to meet the daily needs for self-care and have participated in the medical procedure they are receiving from the physician." (Dorothea, 2003). The art of nursing is done by providing help to a person in order to enable him or she does it on his or her own. Nursing also takes place when a friend or family of the patient us is shown on how he or she may be able to assist the patient. Orem also defines the act of assisting the physician with respect to the patient as nursing. According to Orem, the nurse "maintains selected conditions of action while he performs the measures with which she may assist the physician in taking care of the patient and also controlling of the tools and supplies that the physician requires when attending to the patient (2003).

The nurse takes the load of events that the efforts of the physician may be concentrated towards the making of decisions and performing the actual measure. The nurse makes choices based on the decisions made by the physician directions and the common requirements for the performance of the process. The nurse also helps the physician in caring for the patient after a medical procedure is carried out on a patient by the physician. Orem suggests that nurses also have a role caring for the tools, equipment, and the materials that were used during the medical measure. The nurse, therefore, supports the physician by doing what the physician would have done by himself or herself. The nurse is liable for any decisions that he or she makes with respect to the patient and the physician; this involves the implementation of the physician's directions on medication and provision of treatment to the patient. Nurses, therefore, have the responsibility to have enough comprehension and skills required to make the proper decisions about what is to be done, the rightness of the directives that have been given by the physician about supporting him or her and the nurse's capability to act. Orem, however, says that the role of the nurse does not include carrying out roles that are set by policies and standards of the medical profession as the rightful responsibility of the physician (Dorothea, 2003). Therefore, in case a nurse has acquired knowledge and skills to perform certain a medical process and actually performs it with direction from the physician he or she is not practicing but standing in for the physician. The physician, therefore, takes all the responsibility for the consequences that come up from the directives to the nurse; for the nurse was not carrying out a nursing procedure but a medical procedure. Nursing care is dedicated to helping a patient meet his her continuous needs for self-care; which include the physician directives on medication and habitual needs. Orem says that nursing with respect to the patient has two general purposes; to achieve or assist the patient to achieve his or her requirements in self-care and self -participation in the medical care as directed by the physician and to assist the patient to direct himself or herself is capable of doing so (Dorothea, 2003).

2.1.2 Health

Orem suggests that the words health and being healthy are the ones used to define a living thing as the state of structurally and functionally "whole" or "sound." In this situation, "sound" refers to having the energy and strength, while having no symptoms of the disease. Orem uses "whole" to means that all the factors have been considered and none has been omitted. Orem goes on to define health as "the state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease" (Dorothea, 2003). She then goes on to define health as that which involves the availability of measure to prevent illness. Orem presents her views on physical, psychological, interpersonal, and social components of health and concludes that they work as a unit (Taylor, 2011). Therefore, illness is due to some deviation in the normal structure or function states of the ill person.

Orem also feels that providing self-care at therapeutic level is important to the health of the individual and should, therefore, be provided at a constant rate. She noticed that individuals care for themselves with respect to health, live a longer life, and are happier compared those who do not take care of themselves. In her theory of self-care, she says that health situations go done when self-care is ignored. Orem views that having self-care creates a driving force that forces people to seek medical attention when they feel sick and therefore encourages people to take care of themselves. The society in Orem's view has the responsibility to show support to the health of individuals who belong to it (Chad, Haley, Cheryl, & Travis, 2015).

2.1.3 Environment

Orem describes the environment as the time and space factors in which the self-care system takes place. She then defines it as "the prevailing external and internal conditions in a given time at a location." She believes that the environment is not just a part of an individual's surrounding but also, the things that affect the development of the individual. Orem grouped environmental components into two groups; one, the internal which includes physical, chemical, social, and biological factors which include pollution agents, the atmosphere, pathogens, the climatic conditions, and pets. The second group is external factors which include socio-economic and cultural factors such cultural responsibilities, age roles, and gender roles. These two groups are both essential to the self-care of a person (Dorothea, 2003). She believes that environment is a key factor to self-care, whether in the health care center or at home. She states that if a member of a family is a cancer patient, the family members have the responsibility to create an environment that is supportive in order to remain healthy and stress-free. Such environments prevent the patient from having self-neglect and ensures that they take care themselves as they are supposed to (Parker, & Smith, 2010). This, therefore, means that people control the environment around a patient and may create either one favorable for healing or one that will distort the self-care measure (Chad, Haley, Cheryl, & Travis, 2015). Nurses have a role to ensure that a proper environment for self-care is established both at health care centers and at home by providing education and guidance.

2.1.4 Person

Orem defines a person as self-care agent. She then goes on to define self-care as the set of actives that individuals perform on their own representation in taking care of their well-being. Orem later describes the person in a different perspective; she refers adults as the only active persons and the rest (the aged, children, infants, and teenagers) are defined as dependents. She believes that a person exchanges vigor with the environment with the aim of bringing satisfaction of the self-care need (O'Shaughnessy, 2014). Orem view of a person is that a person is a unification and not combination of its components. A person is viewed to have the ability of self-knowledge and acting with a purpose (Chad, Haley, Cheryl, & Travis, 2015). Orem believes that a person has a condition of socially depending on other people, that brought up the need to have helpers and nurses were one of the needed set of helpers (Dorothea, 2003).

3.0 Transformation Analysis

I got some few insights about the definitions and concepts in relation to the metaparadigms that I described in the first section. The slight change of what I thought about the metaparadigms came about after studying the defi...