Running Head: Personal Narrative Delaney 1

Personal Nursing Metaparadigm Narrative

This narrative will define the metaparadigm of nursing and explain how these aspects are

incorporated into my care as well as who I am as a person.

The definition of health expands greater than just the presence or lack of a pathogen.

Health is the overall wellbeing of a person, physically, mentally as well as spiritually. Health

does not only involve the science and medical aspects but rather a generalized wellbeing of a

person and their responses in an environment.

Environment is personally defined as a space in which a person is situated, whether this is

a physical or emotional interpretation of an area. The environment can be physically around a

person such as a room filled with chairs, desks and a chalk board which is interpreted as a

classroom, but it can also be interpreted emotionally as a state of anxiety. This occurs because of

a person’s history and their associations that attach to a specific environment. A classroom can

provoke anxiety due to an individual having previous testing anxiety causing the environment of

a classroom to entice negative emotions in one individual while the same environment can have

no effect other than the understanding of what the room is, to another individuals that lacks this

previous emotional stress.

When defining a person, it is as simple as it sounds, a person. No matter if the individual

is living or not, they will always remain a person, even in the afterlife, always treated kindly and

with respect. A person is a part of society and shares in the collective experience of life while

developing their own sense of who they are as each person is completely individual and different

than another person. Each person has their own memories and create their own future as well as

determining the kind of life they would like to live. No two persons could ever be the exact same
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due to the individual’s specific emotions, interpretations of their environment and due to these

reactions, develop different memories.

Defining nursing is often very difficult due to the complexity of the nursing discipline.

Nursing is dependent on the individual’s previous experiences and beliefs which influence the

way that the individual defines nursing, leading to an infinite amount of definitions. A personal

definition of nursing is the providence of medical, emotional and spiritual care while building a

strong rapport with individuals seeking care. Nurses develop trust in order to allow the individual

seeking care, to feel comfortable and able to share their personal beliefs, experiences and

emotions to allow the nurse to help as greatly as possible. Nursing is larger than the actions that

are conducted by the nurse but rather the collective emotions between other nurses and

individuals that are defining characteristics of a nurse. These emotions and characteristics are

kindness, compassion, seeking to assist and help others, empathetic, extremely caring towards

others and many more.

Based upon these personal definitions, each is applied when I provide care both in the

sense of nursing as an occupation but also applied to my daily life. I use my personal definition

of health to analyze each person to determine how exactly care should be provided based upon

which aspect they are lacking to achieve an overall wellbeing, whether it is physical, mentally,

spiritually or all of these at once. Upon analyzing these areas, it allows me to also determine how

they feel regarding their current environment and how this could be affecting their mental state.

When working with an individual, keeping in mind the definition of a person, it allows myself to

ensure that I am providing ethical care and interactions by remembering that every person has a

story, personal views and values as well as they should always be respected no matter who they

are, what they are going through or what their outcome is after your providence of care.
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These definitions shape how I provide care and how I view myself as a nurse. A personal

experience where these definitions are seen was during my most recent clinical shift on the

Orthopedics floor at the hospital. The patient that I was working with was feeling extremely

anxious regarding her recovery, because of this, I sat down and simply talked to her to determine

where all of this anxiety could be coming from and how I would be able to have a greater impact

on alleviating this anxiety. I treated her as a person, with respect and did not minimize any of the

fears that she felt. The information she shared with me allowed us to develop a detailed recovery

plan to ensure that she understands the expected outcomes and what is going to occur in the next

few weeks. I understood that her health was greater than just her injured knee but also her current

mental state, so I focused on helping her mental well being as well as caring for her post-surgical

knee. Nursing is greater than just taking care of the medical aspects but also the patient as a

whole which is what I always ensure to develop a strong relationship with the patient I am

working with to determine if they have any fears or anything that may be causing them spiritual

or emotional discomfort. I also discovered that the patient had great anxiety due to being in a

hospital room. She stated that she becomes very scared when feeling as though she has become

sick, and the feeling of being in a hospital room develops these feelings. Due to this, I

remembered my definition of environment and had a discussion regarding if we could try to

change the environment to limit this discomfort. We decided to use the curtains around her to

close off one half of the room and open the blinds in front of the window to give her an amazing

view of the helicopter pad. We also took most of the medical supplies out of view so she would

almost forget that she was in the hospital and made the environment cause her less discomfort.

She was extremely grateful after reducing her anxiety level. This entire experience reminded me

of why I want to become a nurse and have such a passion for helping others.