Perspectives on Health and Well-Being in Nursing

Introduction

Health, according to the World Health Organization, is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of a disease or infirmity.” The World Health Organization’s definition of health is consistent with that of the bio-psychosocial model of health, which defines health as an inclusion of the psychological, physiological as well as social factors in health and illness as well as the interactions between the elements (Dharmshaktu, 2018). However, the WHO’s definition differs from that of the traditional medical model that defines health as the absence of disease or illness. Therefore, it emphasizes the role of clinical diagnosis and intervention.

The WHO’s definition of health associates health explicitly with well-being. It also conceptualizes health as a human right, which requires physical and social resources in order to achieve and maintain a healthy human being. The definition of well-being is that it is a positive rather than a neutral state of a person and thus frames health as a positive desire (White & Eyber, 2017). The definition of well-being was adopted from the Ottawa Charter of 1986, which described health as a resource for everyday life and not an object of living. Based on the Ottawa definition, health can be deemed as a means of living well, which highlights the link between health promotion and participation in society.

The Role of Nurses in Health and Well-Being

Going back to the definition of health by WHO, the health potential has been perceived to include both physical and mental well-being, which is depicted as the context of a person’s development in the course of their lives. Nurses have been tasked with maintaining the health of patients. They deal with the patients for a long time as the work of a physician requires them only to diagnose a patient and leave the rest under the care of a nurse. As a result of this, the nurses are referred to as the health care providers and play a core role in ensuring that the population is healthy and well looked at even in times of crisis. Whether a person is improving in health or not is left to the nurses, and this positions the nurses in a strategic position in regard to the prevention of diseases as well as offering care to the patient, especially palliative care (Danielsen et al., 2018). Based on this, nurses, therefore, are tasked with measuring the performance of a patient in response to achieving complete health both mentally and physically. A total recovery implies the absence of disease and the patient’s body is well-functioning.

The Biomedical Perspective vs. Holistic Nursing Approach

However, the resultant measures of health care in nursing have continued to frequent and emphasize the absence of any symptoms of a disease. This is consistent with the biomedical perspective of health. Based on this, the overall objective of the nursing sciences involves the development of strategies for the support of the patients to make informed decisions and choices regarding their personal health status in the course of their lives. The primary goal of nursing, therefore, is to make considerations and support more sophisticated processes in maintaining the health of a person rather than just putting efforts into the treatment and curing of diseases or illnesses (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Most of the caring work is left to the nurses. Nurses from all specialities are, therefore, tasked with the responsibility of facilitating the empowerment of their patients through providing caring assignments.

Nurses and Mental Health

The definition of health also includes the mental health part, and this implies that nurses also have the responsibility of ensuring that their patients are mentally stable. Mental health nurses, therefore, should have the ability to integrate the basic concepts into clinical praxis, which has been described as being dependent on the ability of the nurses to assess the needs of the patients (Kitson, 2018); this is a way of supporting the patient in regard to empowerment as well as dealing with the issues of power imbalances in an organizational. One of the common issues in the acquisition of nursing knowledge across all the different fields in nursing is the consideration of how the process of transition needs to be included, for example, patient empowerment. The growth process and the subjective experience of health have been labelled as the process of transition and have been most often stimulated through the communication of needs and thoughts. Since a lot of time is spent with the patients, emotional support has been shown to be of great significance, especially during the caring period when the patients undergo various treatments in both home-based care as well as in healthcare institutions.

The Concept of Transition in Nursing

The concept of transition in nursing is highly intertwined with health and well-being (Kristiansen et al., 2018). The reason behind this is that the meaning of the term transition involves psychological processes that the patient adapts in regard to the changing reality. As a result, transition, therefore, becomes a concept of utmost concern in nursing regardless of the area of specialization as it involves the processes of movement from one condition, state, or situation to another. One of the most significant concepts in regard to transiting towards a positive state of health and well-being in mental health nursing is increased self-understanding. The aspect of self-understanding is accomplished through the possibility of verbalization in regard to desires in a trusting relationship.

Family Involvement in Care

Another major and essential aspect of nursing, regardless of the area of specialization, is the involvement of the family members and relatives in the care process with the primary aim of assisting in recognition of the needs of the patient (Caldeira, Romeiro & Martins, 2019). It should be noted that most mental health patients might be experiencing worse conditions that might not allow them even to recognize who they are, and even at this point, nurses have to carry on with their caring and nursing responsibilities. Based on this, patients in mental health care facilities may be, at times, unable to verbalize their needs and desires, and therefore, this is where the family members and relatives come in. The relatives may play an essential role in the recognition and communication of the needs of their patients. The help may be relevant even at times when the needs are insufficiently acknowledged by the care providers, which, most of the time, is the nurses.

Collaboration in Mental Health Care

It is difficult for nurses alone to be able to manage health crises, especially for mentally ill patients. Therefore, to ensure an effective recovery process, stakeholders need a collaborative approach. In the advancement of nursing care among patients as well as the enhancement of health and well-being among the patients and their relatives, there is a need to gather more information to increase the nursing knowledge and apply and evaluate in regard to their abilities to support the patients’ transition towards the attainment of better health and wellbeing. However, there are issues related to specialization that tend to affect the nursing career, and one of them is the ability of the nurses to provide emotional support to the patient as a way of helping them to verbalize their needs and desires.

The Importance of Emotional Support

The need for emotional support is not only essential in helping the patient try to verbalize their needs, but it is also a significant aspect of the healing process. Many patients may not feel like they are treated in the right manner if the nurse does not show any empathy to the patient. Being ruthless in the name of professionalism does not guarantee the effective healing process of the patient, and therefore, the nurse should at least show some concern for the patient. Women are more empathetic than men, and this implies that men are less likely to be empathetic.

Women learn to be empathetic at a young age, and the reason behind this is that women are used to taking care of their families and siblings back at home and, therefore, grow up with an empathetic mind. Being gentle is also associated with depicting emotional concern to the patient, and this has an overall impact on speeding the recovery process. Based on this, it is essential for the nurses, regardless of gender, to show emotional support to the patients. Especially those who have mental conditions, as some, might have fallen into depression as a result of abandonment, and all that they need is emotional support to help them heal and recover faster.

Equality and Ethical Considerations in Nursing

Based on nursing ethics, all patients need to be treated the same without discrimination, and this implies that the nurses have to ensure equality in all their activities involving the patients (Suhonen et al., 2018). Equality in the decision-making process is essential to ensuring that all patients are subjected to the same treatment while they are in the healthcare facilities. Equality in decision-making is achieved through a genuine dialogue with either the patients or their relatives which is aimed at supporting the patient’s resources and insights. Even in decision-making, emotional support still applies in that it enhances the patient’s ability to make decisions in accordance with their personal preferences.

Ethical Dilemmas Nurses Face

There are various ethical concerns that nurses face in their line of duty, and they tend to question the morality of the decisions they make. For example, in the case of abortion, organ donation, and even euthanasia, ethical considerations are required. Some decisions may seem simple to make for a layperson, but a nurse may have to make a lot of considerations in order to come up with a solution. Upon graduation, nurses and doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, in which they swear to protect the lives of the patients. However, there have been many issues in the workplace. For example, in abortion and euthanasia, nurses are faced with the moral obligations of protecting life and, at the same time, and they have to alleviate pain and suffering. Based on this, they are faced with a dilemma in which they are supposed to choose one. If they make a wrong decision, it may haunt them over their lives, and they may even be putting their career on the line. Based on this, a proper and guided decision needs to be made before the action is performed to safeguard the patient’s right to health and well-being.

Conclusion

In conclusion, health can be described as a multifaceted approach that consists of numerous definitions that depend upon a range of factors that are relative to every individual. As a result, collaboration between different sectors is needed to help in the provision of a holistic approach. Every stakeholder in the health sector should be involved both in decision-making and taking care of the patients. Nurses play a crucial role in ensuring that the health and well-being of all individuals have been achieved. And this is regardless of the condition in which they are suffering.

References

Caldeira, S., Romeiro, J., & Martins, H. (2019). The Role of the Nurse in Providing Spiritual Care: A Case Study Approach to Exploring Specific Care Provision by Healthcare Workers in the Context of an Interdisciplinary Healthcare Team. In Spirituality in Healthcare: Perspectives for Innovative Practice (pp. 117-142). Springer, Cham.

Danielsen, B. V., Sand, A. M., Rosland, J. H., & Førland, O. (2018). Experiences and challenges of home care nurses and general practitioners in home-based palliative care–a qualitative study. BMC palliative care, 17(1), 95.

Dharmshaktu, N. S. (2018). Holistic Health and Wellbeing: How to Achieve it. Int. J. Preven. Curat. Comm. Med, 4(2).

Kitson, A. L. (2018). The fundamentals of care framework as a point-of-care nursing theory. Nursing Research, 67(2), 99-107.

Kristiansen, L., Karlström, A., Holmstrom, M. R., Boman, N., Jonsson, C., & Olofsson, N. (2018). A health promotion intervention strengthening Swedish high school students’ wellbeing: A feasibility study. British Journal of School Nursing, 13(6), 288-297.

Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12.

Suhonen, R., Stolt, M., Habermann, M., Hjaltadottir, I., Vryonides, S., Tonnessen, S., … & Scott, P. A. (2018). Ethical elements in priority setting in nursing care: A scoping review. International journal of nursing studies, 88, 25-42.

White, S. C., & Eyber, C. (2017). Positive mental health and wellbeing. In The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health (pp. 129-150). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

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