Personal Philosophy and Theoretical Concepts Paper
A nursing theory includes a set of concepts, definitions, relationships, and postulations emanated from nursing models or other disciplines. Nursing theories increase the general knowledge within the nursing discipline through research to justify them. The purpose of this paper is to present my nursing autobiography and discuss the four metaparadigms and practice-specific concepts of Watson’s theory.
Autobiography
I am a registered nurse (RN)-BSN and am currently enrolled in a family nurse practitioner (FNP) program. I started as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) in 2000, providing nursing care to the elderly in a skilled nursing facility for about six months. I then worked with pediatric populations in home care settings for over 16 years. When practicing as an LPN, I enrolled in an Associate Degree in Nursing course (ADN). I graduated in 2015 and received my ADN degree to become an RN at the associate level. I also trained and became certified in BCLS and ACLS. After graduation, I got a job in 2016 as a Med-Surgical Telemetry in the acute care setting at the Raulerstan Hospital in Okeechobee, Florida. The BCLS and ACLS certifications made me the right person for the job, and my skills in setting up and reading EKGs since I am required to provide immediate interventions when patients need assistance.
I continued working in the home health care setting with pediatrics, which was driven by my passion for pediatrics. I also worked with home health care management with various patient populations. I continued to upgrade my education level and enrolled in a BSN course when working as an ADN. On March 2022, I graduated from South University Suma Cum Laude after attaining my BSN and becoming an RN-BSN. I have now actively enrolled in an FNP program and will soon become a certified FNP. In addition, I am
engaging in travel nursing, whereby I travel to various hospitals where I work in Med-Surge Telemetry and Emergency Room holding.
The Four Metaparadigms
Metaparadigm is a concept that includes the fundamental issues in a discipline. They outline the general parameters of a scientific discipline and emphasize scientific efforts. Metaparadigms create concrete and definite paradigms for researchers, thus clarifying them and giving a deeper insight into the professionals’ attitudes (Deliktas et al., 2019). This section will discuss the four metaparadigms: patient, environment, nursing, and health.
Patient
The patient metaparadigm focuses on the individual receiving care and includes the family, culture, and society. The care structure should take into account the patient’s health care, spiritual, and social needs (Deliktas et al., 2019). The patient’s health outcome is a result of how they interact with their physical and social connections.
Environment
The environment metaparadigm focuses on the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions connected to human health. The environment comprises internal and external influences and asserts that how individuals constantly interact with their surroundings impacts their health and wellness (Deliktas et al., 2019). The metaparadigm theorizes that individuals can modify their environmental factors to improve health.
Nursing
The nursing metaparadigm refers to the nursing profession, practices, objectives, and results. It entails achieving optimal health outcomes through a mutual patient-nurse relationship in a safe and caring environment (Deliktas et al., 2019). It applies knowledge, skills, technology, professional judgment, collaborations, and communication to perform duties and responsibilities to attain the best possible patient outcomes.
Health
The health metaparadigm defines processes of life and death and is the level of wellness and healthcare access a patient has. Health and wellness encompass an individual’s lifespan and genetic makeup and how physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing is integrated into health care for maximum benefits (Deliktas et al., 2019). The assumption is that these factors impact a person’s wellbeing.
Two Practice-Specific Concepts
Watson’s Theory of Human Caring hypothesizes that nursing stresses health promotion, disease prevention, care for the sick, and health restoration. It asserts that caring is fundamental to nursing since it promotes health better than medical cure. It states that a human being is part of himself, the environment, nature, and the universe and cannot be healed when perceived as an object (Nikfarid et al., 2018). Two concepts of Watson’s theory include health and environment.
Health
Health is the synthesis of wellness and illness and is defined by a patient’s perception across the lifespan. The degree of health represents the mutual interactive process between a person and their environment. Watson defined health as unity and harmony within a person’s mind, body, and soul. The theory links health with the level of connection between the self as perceived and the self as experienced (Nikfarid et al., 2018). The concept applies to FNP practice since FNPs are required to assess patients’ physical, mental, and social functioning and implement interventions to improve patients’ general level of daily functioning (Alharbi & Baker, 2020). Nurses should enable patients to make meaning of their illness and wellness experiences and perceive them when receiving nursing care.
Environment
The environment refers to surroundings affecting the patient and includes societal beliefs, values, customs, and expectations. It is the geography of an individual’s social experience, the setting of experience as everyday life. Watson’s theory defines environment as the internal and external factors that enable people to actualize their inner power of self-healing (Nikfarid et al., 2018). The concept applies to FNP practice as FNPs should consider themselves an external factor that can assist and provide care to patients through the Ten Caritas Processes, including empathy, love, trust, and teaching/learning experiences (Alharbi & Baker, 2020). Besides, the FNP must create a therapeutic environment for the patient where they feel safe to promote healing.
Personal Philosophy and Theoretical Concepts Paper Conclusion
Nursing theories are used by nurses to guide and improve nursing practice. The patient metaparadigm focuses on the person receiving care, while environment refers to surroundings affecting the patient. Watson’s theory views health as more complex than just physiological processes and includes the body, spirit, mind, and soul. An environment that represents the ideas of support, safety, and health improves patients’ outcomes.
Personal Philosophy and Theoretical Concepts Paper References
Alharbi, K. M., & Baker, O. G. (2020). Jean Watson’s middle range theory of human caring: A critique. Int. J. Advanced Multidiscip. Sci. Res, 3, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.31426/ijamsr.2020.3.1.3011
Deliktas, A., Korukcu, O., Aydin, R., & Kabukcuoglu, K. (2019). Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Nursing Metaparadigms: A Phenomenological Study. The journal of nursing research: JNR, 27(5), e45. https://doi.org/10.1097/jnr.0000000000000311
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.