Florence Nightingale Nursing Theory Essay

Introduction

Florence Nightingale's environment theory states nurses modify the environment to maintain the well-being of the patients. According to Nightingale, people are strongly connected to their health, environment, and nurse. She indicated that problems encountered by the public are indirectly linked to health but directly associated with the environment we are living in. Florence Nightingale's theory described four concepts that are inter-related with one another, and they include an individual, environment, nurse, and health (Sher, & Akhtar, 2018).

The Four Metaparadigms

Environment

The environment is the approach manipulated by a nurse for the natural forces to ensure that people are healthy or vice versa. The environment contributes significantly to the maintenance of health and the promotion of illness recovery. There are five components of the environment, which are vital to the people's health, and they include unpolluted air, clean water, effective drainage, hygiene, and proper light (tashpoint0, 2013).

Individual

In Florence Nightingale's nursing theory, an individual is addressed as the person impacted by the environment and receiving care from a nurse. The biological component of a patient is handled through the usage of medicine and nursing to heal different illnesses. The social and psychological factors comprise of social relations, feelings, thinking, and individual-concept (tashpoint0, 2013). The spiritual element is entangled with Florence's individual spiritual beliefs, which states that people are valued.

Nurse

A nurse is an individual who keeps a patient in a healthy environment to ensure a maximum healing process. Nursing provides the capability of an individual who manages the environment to maintain well-being and healing. Nurses maintain patients' health by controlling the conditions of the environment so that they can observe the actual ailments of the disease.

Health

Health is the degree of well-being that is maintained by nurses through modified environmental components. According to Florence, health is the ability to utilize our power without difficulties. The disease triggers the presence of a problem in the body that needs to be corrected. Symptoms indicate the occurrence of illness and enable the suitable application of interventions. The factors that ensure good health include unpolluted air, clean water, effective drainage, hygiene, and proper light (tashpoint0, 2013).

Application

Florence Nightingale's theory is applicable in today's nursing practice because her theory is still known to form the foundation of modern nursing. The theory helps me to understand the methods that I can use to offer quality care to my patients by identifying the environmental components, which assist the healing of my patients.

Virginia Henderson Theory

Virginia Henderson developed the need theory that defines the distinctive effort of nursing practice. Henderson stated that nurses take care of ill people until they are capable of taking care of basic needs independently. She indicated that patients always have the desire to return to their healthy lives. Additionally, she describes nurses as individuals with the willingness to serve and devote themselves to taking care of patients in days and nights (Gonzalo, 2019). Henderson developed the 14 psychological components that indicate the universal nursing approach.

The Four Metaparadigms

Individual

According to Henderson, people have necessities that contribute to their health, and they need support to attain health, independence, or die peacefully. She states that people achieve completeness if they maintain a balance of their emotional and psychological status. To her, patients are individuals who require nursing care and indicated that their minds and bodies are interconnected and inseparable (Gonzalo, 2019).

Environment

One of Henderson's activities towards the patient's support was the maintenance of a conducive environment to ensure well-being. Her theory supports the efforts of public and private health facilities in maintaining the wellness of patients. Her thinking is that society needs nurses to care for patients who cannot take care of themselves.

Health

Henderson addresses health as the ability to perform functions without any assistance. She defined a nurse as any individual who promotes health, prevents diseases, and can heal. She indicated that good health is challenging as it is influenced by various factors, including emotions, culture, and age (Gonzalo, 2019).

Nursing

Nursing is the distinctive function of a nurse to support patients in performing the actions that contribute to their health or recovery, which the patient cannot perform due to a lack of strength or knowledge. The aim of the nurses is making the patients complete and independent.

Application

Henderson's Need Theory is applicable today in nursing activities because it enables the nurses to set goals on the fourteen needs of Henderson. The fourteen significant concepts can be a foundation of nursing research on the methods of improving health care performance.

References

Gonzalo, A. (2019, August 24). Virginia Henderson: Need Theory Study Guide. Retrieved from https://nurseslabs.com/virginia-hendersons-need-theory/#Virginia-Hendersons-Need-Theory.

tashpoint0. (2013, November 22). The Four Metaparadigms. Retrieved from https://ashdan81.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/metaparadigm-nursing/

Sher, A. N. A., & Akhtar, A. (2018). Clinical Application of Nightingale's Theory. J Clin Res Bioeth, 9(329), 2. DOI: 10.4172/2155-9627.1000329