Anne Nightingale Person

Person:
According to Nightingale, person was the one who was the recipient of the care that the nurse was giving. In her writings, “patients” are what she referred the individuals as. The people had embodied numerous elements such as biological, social, psychological, and spiritual, therefore being thought of as multidimensional. The cure and prevention of diseases had been related to the biological aspect. Interactions within society was the social element of people. Items that would define any thought processes, an individual’s self-concept, their feelings, and intellect were a part of the psychological component. The values that people had which would help them to determine whether decision that they were making were right or wrong had

been the spiritual element that people were composed of. The relationship of those elements defines concept of holism that Nightingale had. Nightingale’s perception of holism had been different than that of the classical definition. “Clearly, she did appear to pay more attention to the physical and psychological components than to the other elements of holistic beings” (Webb, A. A., 1995).

Health:
Nightingale believed that the definition of health was not only to be clean of diseases, but to also have a well state of physical, mental, and social well-being. “By Nightingale’s definition of health, an individual dying of cancer could still be in a healthy state, providing issues such as coping mechanisms, support systems, pain management, and grief support were provided” (Webb, A. A., 1995). The intentions of all nursing should be the health of the patient, whether they may be ill or not. As stated before, Nightingale supported the idea that nurses should engage health promotion. The environment of the patient should be in balance for the patient to maintain a state of being healthy or to help encourage the recovery of an ill patient. It is the nurse’s responsibility to help a patient to stay in balance by manipulating the physical environment. Health is not the same for all individuals, it is defined as being the best possible state that the patient is capable of being in at any time and could be promoted by the nurse achieving the Natural Laws that govern health in relation to the patient.