Quality of Life in Contemporary Nursing Theory
The quality of life has become pervasive among social sciences and health literature. The phrase was coiled after the Second World War to denote the need to improve the quantity of life that had become endangered. According to Plummer and Molzahn (2009), the term quality of life formed a response to the growing technological innovations in the health sector. Exponentially, he uses, and application of the terminology has grown over time to imply advanced levels that incorporate gender issues. The phrase initially meant the experiences of life that are satisfying and healthy.
Consequently, research from the nursing sector has aided the allocation of more resources to some regions of healthcare to improve the status of the people suffering from particular diseases such as cancer. According to this review, the nurses have based their analysis of this phrase from a social science standpoint rather than on a nursing viewpoint. The aim of this research is clarifying the concept from a nursing angle through critically scrutinizing the phrase quality of life as used by modern nursing theories.
According to Plummer and Molzahn (2009), a concept analysis was conducted via a critical assessment of the texts. As a result of these researches, the term quality of life was exposed to scientific review based on nursing theories. In this paper, the viewpoints of various scholars have been summarized to bring about a pragmatic utility in the nursing field. From Peplau Perspective, the quality of life is denoted as an intangible, all-rounded, and subjective situation of a personal experience that is synonymous with a persons‘ wellbeing. This perspective is originated from the interaction of the nurses and the patients who define the terminology based on their expectations.
Additionally, Martha Rogers’ view (Science of Unitary Human Being) denotes the quality of life from the theories of life satisfaction, valuation, and coils the phrase from the environmental process. Imogene King’s perspective of systems framework identifies the quality of life as the personal ability to meet the set goals about life expectations. Therefore people set their hopes on what they need to acquire as quality. From the Transcultural Nursing Theory by Madeline Leininger, culture plays a critical role in shaping what society believes to be quality. However, Rosemarie parse’s standpoint in becoming social theory describes the quality of life from an individualized experience from the global perspective (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2019). This is a social science approach that focuses on the subjective global viewpoint on what is termed as quality in healthcare. Consequently, there is a lack of consensus on the universal definition of quality of life from these literature theories.
It is notably essential to define the quality of life from a holistic viewpoint based on nursing theories. The definition would direct the contemporary actions by the nurses to pursue intrinsic indivisibility of quality of life. According to the nursing theories, it is vital to replace quality with health expectations from ones’ experiences that would widen the understanding of life expectations (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). This analysis of the nursing theories about the quality of life has identified the interconnectedness of persons, relationships, and the environment in building the holistic definition of the phrase. Therefore, additional research is necessary to aid the nurses and other health practitioners’ understanding of the terminology (Adams, 2017). Instead, Parses Theory of humanbecoming is recommendable in defining this concept because it is indivisible.