Abstract
This paper presents an overview of different nursing conceptual models. The study examines Nola Pender’s health promotion model as one of the scientific strategies to address nursing challenges. The research suggests that the design is efficient in its effort to identify the health risk factors of a patient. The health promotion model provides information that explains the causes of disorders. The approach provides ideas of the various factors that interact to cause diseases. This research also explores challenges seen in administration, practice, research, or education in relation to the design. It evaluates a second model to draw a comparison with Nola’s theory. The second nursing model is the Dorothea Orem’s self–care theory. This design provides a view in which a practitioner can examine an individual from different perspectives. The paper presents a critical analysis of the models and their use in resolving health care issues. It notes that Dorothea Orem’s self–care theory limits itself to four factors that account for wellness in people. The factors include the human being, nursing and adaptation to the environment. The model examines these factors as interrelated systems that provide balance to an individual and help in promoting his or her wellbeing. The design is significant in the provision of creative and practical solutions. It lays emphasis on the patient’s reactions while interacting with external factors. The comparison between these models provides essential information on the rationale of nursing conceptual models. This study helps to draw different perspectives on the application of nursing conceptual models.
Introduction Nursing models refer to techniques of applying scientific methods to address emerging challenges in the nursing profession. Nursing is a branch of the medical profession. Its main purpose is to improve healthcare and quality of patient care. The roles of nurses include assessment, diagnosis, identification, planning and evaluation of medical problems. The roles are significant and interdependent and ensure successful implementation of nursing objectives. They are also cyclical and continuous processes that drive the nursing profession. Practitioners use different nursing models to provide frameworks for the provision of necessary services by the nurses to patients. Conceptual models provide structural paradigms that improve the process of delivery of quality nursing care. The different nursing conceptual models represent a diverse range of beliefs and values that assist the nurses to solve different challenges (Parker, 2010).
Nola Pender’s health promotion model
This paper presents the Nola Penders’ health promotion model. The model is about 60 years old. The design of the model seeks to promote successful maintenance of a healthy body and mind. The model is efficient in its effort to identify the health risk factors of a patient. The model derives its name from a medical term that illustrates a complex cluster of subjects and networks that contribute to infection and spread of a disease. The health promotion model postulates the idea that disorders do not spread randomly in clusters. It shows that isolation of diseases requires one to research numerous parameters. The model underscores the heterogeneous and multiple causes of disorders, health conditions and symptoms. This aspect forms a collective web of health awareness. This aspect forms a framework that leads to the cause of a health problem and provides remedies to address the challenge. The model provides health practitioners with the basis for understanding the health statuses of their patients. In addition, it provides a system of diagnosis of a disease through breaking its linkages with other possible ailments. This fact allows nurses to address health care challenges effectively (Jasovsky et al., 2010). The rationale for using this model within the nursing paradigms of the individual can be used to explain diseases and disorders caused by multiple factors. In addition, the application of the model has been essential to the environment, health and nursing because it identifies possible channels for preventive strategies for community health challenges. The health promotion model provides information that explains the causes of disorders. The model provides ideas of the numerous factors that interact to cause diseases. This aspect gives nurses a model representation of reality. The model provides linkages that lead to the root causes of a disease. It demonstrates the different causative agents of many diseases by use of arrows. Every arrow shows that the element at its origin is a cause of disease or an ailment. This model is essential in nursing paradigms that involve individuals, societies and communities as they explain complex diseases and disabilities. It is crucial in integrating environmental and genetic factors and the causes of diseases (Parker, 2010). The problem
Experts in the nursing profession identify challenges that relate to the health promotion model which can be observed in administration, practice and research. One major problem that is prevalent in this model is administrative based. Experts limit the scope of the health promotion design to the identification and prediction of behaviors that improve health. The model does not include a strategy for avoiding disorders. The administration of better health care on the basis of this model relates to influencing people’s behavior to improve health. However, the design fails to provide solutions for the avoidance of diseases. A notable practice problem that may affect the health promotion model is the lack of focus on preventive measures as a strategy for curbing diseases. Users of the promotion program focus on the provision of drugs than seeking preventive measures like positive health behavior in controlling diseases. This problem can affect the application of the health promotion model. Nola Pender’s main assumption is that she can influence behaviors for improving health through positive motivation. It is evident from research that health promotion is not solely limited to the behavior of a person. Environmental factors also play an essential role in the determination of health. Therefore, this point poses a major problem for the model. Its success relates to environmental conditions especially in the way people interact and transform their environment. A significant challenge observed in practice is that the current plans on health care improvement do not fully address the strategies of patient care. This aspect affects the overall outcomes of health care delivery. In addition, health care costs continue rising. This fact makes the costs unaffordable to low income categories of people in the society. This point underscores the failure of the Nola Pender’s approach. The design fails to provide the necessary platform that can give researchers the opportunities to study on evidence-based approaches. Most nurses lack the knowledge of the diverse nursing models like the health promotion theory. Health experts continue to identify research gaps on health behaviors. This fact is because of a poor culture on evidence based designs (Parker, 2010).
The second model The second nursing model is the Dorothea Orem’s self–care theory. This design comprises of four main concepts that include nursing, individual, health and the environment. This model provides a perspective in which a practitioner can analyze an individual from different perspectives. The model introduces aspects of the environment, nursing and health in the determination of the condition of an individual. It illustrates the influence of these external factors on the health of an individual. According to the model, health and illnesses fall on a similar continuum with various prospects and conditions. An individual according to the social paradigm comprises of different aspects that sustain his good health. The model highlights that the adaptation of the four categories contributes to good health, dignity and high quality of life (Parker, 2010). The model is significant in the provision of creative and practical solutions. It lays emphasis on the patient’s reactions while interacting with external factors. This model is essential in nursing because it brings about new parameters into perspective when analyzing a problem. These parameters may not be visible in the nursing diagnosis but could still be crucial in addressing the problem (Musker, 2012). The two models can complement each other. The health promotion model is helpful when examining problems that arise from multiple factors. On the other hand, the self-care model explains the four main components that constitute good health in an individual. The two can converge to explain the role of diverse factors in the determination of health and causes of disorders. The analysis of models Dorothea Orem’s self–care theory explains that there are four factors that account for good health. The factors include the human being, nursing and adaptation to the environment. The model presents these factors as interrelated systems that provide balance to an individual and help in promoting his or her wellbeing. Therefore, the model of self-care recognizes the existence of interlinked factors that sustain the health of individuals or may trigger an imbalance in health (Horne, 2012). In similarity, the health promotion model also appreciates the existence of the networks that lead to diseases in an individual. The conceptual nursing model of health promotion reveals that disorders do not spread randomly in clusters. It shows that isolation of diseases requires one to manipulate numerous variables. The model underscores the presence of heterogeneous and multiple causes of disorders, health conditions and symptoms. This knowledge can lead to self-care. The model of self-care views an individual as a set of clusters that coalesce to sustain his or her wellbeing. Social, psychological and biological factors play a critical role in enhancing the health of the individual. Maintenance of balance between these factors promotes the health of the individual. The model provides the nursing profession with the opportunity to analyze individuals from a perspective of a system (Marjorie, 2008). In contrast, the health promotion model focuses on analyzing diseases that arise as a result of multiple factors. The model is relevant in understanding diseases that have multiple causes. It provides links that lead to the root causes of the disease and develops a link that can promote the understanding of the disease. The model of health promotion is a crucial nursing model that promotes community health through analyzing different perspectives on the origin of health problems, disorders and conditions. The model is important in defining the self-care factors for different diseases. It is one of the viable models in addressing health challenges that link the community and other health practitioners. The health promotion model illustrates the prevalence of a disorder and defines its importance in understanding various diseases. On the other hand, the self-care model is crucial in evaluating the behavior of an individual and his or her reactions to the environmental factors. It is crucial in the appreciation of an individual and systems that comprise of good health. Therefore, it provides fundamental highlights of how to maintain the balance of different factors that sustain the health of an individual.
References
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