Nursing Philosophy and Metaparadigm Concepts: A Student's View

This essay explores the student's nursing philosophy, which emphasizes holistic, culturally sensitive care. The essay delves into the four main metaparadigm concepts in nursing: person, health, environment, and nursing, providing definitions and the student's interpretation of each. The student's philosophy values continuous learning and the roles of advocate, leader, and manager. The concept of care is proposed as an essential addition to the metaparadigm. The essay incorporates references to support the discussion, highlighting the significance of these concepts in nursing practice. The essay also discusses the importance of values and beliefs in shaping the student's approach to patient care, and the importance of providing optimal and competent care. The essay concludes by asserting the importance of all the metaparadigm concepts in nursing.

Running head: NURSING PHILOSOPHY AND METAPARADIGM 1
Nursing Philosophy and Metaparadigm Concepts in Nursing
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation

NURSING PHILOSOPHY AND METAPARADIGM 2
Nursing Philosophy and Metaparadigm Concepts in Nursing
My philosophy in nursing is founded on offering optimal, competent, sympathetic,
empathetic, and culturally sensitive holistic care. This philosophy is greatly contributed by my
values and beliefs. I believe that nursing gives me an opportunity to help people achieve better
health not only through science, psychology, and physiology but also by taking into account the
personal emotions, beliefs, and religion of the patient. I also believe in continuous learning
through hands-on-experience coupled with formal education as a means of helping to keep in
stride with my philosophy. Lastly, it is my belief that to offer optimal, competent, sympathetic,
and culturally sensitive care I not only need to be a care provider but also a patient advocate,
leader, and manager.
There are four main metaparadigm concepts in nursing, namely, person, health,
environment, and nursing (DeLaune, Ladner, McTier, Tollefson & Lawrence, 2016). As
(Nikfarid, Hekmat, Vedad, & Rajabi 2018) outlines, the definitions of these concepts are still
vague since they are abstract terms pioneering from diverse philosophical thoughts. However,
attempts have been made to elaborate on the meaning of these concepts. The metaparadigm
concept person refers to the individuals recognized in a culture, family, communities, and other
groups (Fawcett & Desanto-Madeya, 2013). The concept of environment is the internal and
external factors that influence a person. On the other hand, the concept health refers to the human
processes of living and dying (Fawcett & Desanto-Madeya, 2013). It has also been defined as the
state of being well and being able to well utilize every power that individuals have to use
(Masters, 2015). Also, (Nikfarid, Hekmat, Vedad, & Rajabi 2018) recognizes the health concept
to entail self-healing, consciousness-transcendence, and harmony of body, mind, and soul. The
concept of nursing refers to management or alteration of the environment in order to implement

NURSING PHILOSOPHY AND METAPARADIGM 3
the natural regulations of health (Masters, 2015). It has also been defined as actions taken by
nurses and associated outcomes (Fawcett & Desanto-Madeya, 2013).
In my view, the concept of person focuses on the individuals receiving nursing care and
encompasses the individual’s uniqueness, beliefs and values, culture, spirituality, social status,
and family and friends. For the concept of health, it refers to the quality as well as physical,
spiritual, emotional, and psychological well-being of the person receiving care. The concept
environment refers to interactions between the person receiving care and their surrounding.
Lastly, the concept nursing refer to activities seeking to support, assist, and improve the well-
being of a person while catering for their needs in a way that is congruent with their beliefs and
cultural values.
The concept of care should be added to the metaparadigm. Care is an inner core in
nursing (Anderson, Willman, Sjostrom-Strand, & Borglin, 2015). It manifests in the relationship
between nurses and patients and has been described as a therapeutic intervention, a moral
imperative, an interpersonal interaction, and a human characteristic (Anderson, Willman,
Sjostrom-Strand, & Borglin, 2015). Since caring is a fundamental value in nursing it should be
acknowledged as a metaparadigm. I would not eliminate any of these concepts as all are ultimate
in nursing.

NURSING PHILOSOPHY AND METAPARADIGM 4
References
Andersson, E. K., Willman, A., Sjöström-Strand, A., & Borglin, G. (2015). Registered nurses'
descriptions of caring: a phenomenographic interview study. BMC nursing, 14, 16.
DeLaune, S. C., Ladner, P. K., McTier, L., Tollefson, J., & Lawrence, J. (2016). Australian and
New Zealand fundamentals of nursing.
Fawcett, J., & Desanto-Madeya, S. (2013). Contemporary nursing knowledge: Analysis and
evaluation of nursing models and theories. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Co.
Masters, K. (2015). Nursing theories: A framework for professional practice. Burlington, Mass. :
Jones & Bartlett Learning
Nikfarid, L., Hekmat, N., Vedad, A., & Rajabi, A. (2018). The main nursing metaparadigm
concepts in human caring theory and Persian mysticism: a comparative study. Journal of
medical ethics and history of medicine, 11, 6.