The Quality Of Life In Nursing: The Definition Of Health

In my personal opinion the meaning of health is established by the individual. For some it might mean being completely disease free, but for others who are diagnosed with a chronic disease this might not be true. The fact that one might have a chronic condition does not necessarily automatically mean that the person can no longer possess the ability to be healthy. Health constitutes how the person is caring for themselves, regardless of their health history. It does not necessarily mean being disease free, but is determined by how involved the patient is in the healthcare decisions, in contrast to being passive as this can impact the state of wellbeing (Freidman, Bowden, & Jones, 2003, p.363), this involvement will impact how well controlled your disease is or may take part in remaining disease free. Health is established by the individual and perceived to be whatever it is the individual has established as a goal for themselves taking into consideration the “family’s value and belief system [as this] shape[s] its patterns of behavior toward the health problems that they face”(Freidman et al.,2003, p364). Once again quality of life can be perceived differently by many. In my opinion quality of life is being able to be self-sufficient. As I believe that once that standard has been compromised, then we are no longer at an optimal level in our quality of

Give an example of a "hard spot" you have encountered during care of a client. Are you happy with how things progressed? Looking back, would you have handled anything differently?

According to Doane and Varcoe (2006) a “hard spot” in nursing is defined as anything that is outside of what the nurse may consider the norm, it is a subjective stance that is taken on by the nurse when the patient’s views, decisions, or living conditions are contrary to that of the nurses that causes there to be a disconnection between the nurse and the family