Nursing Theory Concept Analysis

Nursing Theory Concept Analysis

Self-care can be defined as the deliberate acts done to preserve, replenish and attend to one’s mental, physical and emotional well-being. Self-care is essential for all types of workers, but primarily for nurses and other healthcare professionals whose primary role is to take care of others. In healthcare settings, nurses are exposed to trauma, pain and suffering daily (Ross et al., 2017). Often nurses are traumatized and stressed without realizing. Practising self-care replenishes a nurse’s delivery capacity in the provision of empathy and compassion while improving the quality of healthcare and the quality of life (Borji et al., 2017).

Defining Attributes

The defining attributes of the self-car concept of nursing refer to the defining characteristics of self-care. Firstly, self-care creates self-awareness and creation of boundaries. Through boundaries, nurses can determine when they are overworking or underworking. Also, boundaries determine the clarity of expectations from senior physicians and stakeholders. Secondly, self-care is defined by workload self-regulation (Masinaeinezhad et al., 2018). In healthcare settings, it is often hard to regulate workloads; however, through assertiveness of the self, nurses can determine their workload capacity concerning their emotional, physical and mental well-being. Other habits such as taking annual vacation leaves, meal breaks and personal leave during illness are all self-regulatory characteristics of self-care. Thirdly, self-care is defined by reflective practice. In clinical supervision, nurses have an ethical duty to respect and maintain confidentiality at all times.

Antecedent and Consequence

A precursor can be defined as previous occurrences that prompt the need for a particular concept. Self-care is a concept that entails an individual’s ability to self-asses their personal and environmental resources, their individual needs and practice self-care acts. Therefore, an antecedent of self-care can arise from the lack of self-awareness, physical fatigue, mental and emotional instability and the need to be more goal-oriented. Consequences of the self-care nursing concept include working with a goal-oriented approach and developing self-care habits (Mills et al., 2018). The consequences of self-care are primarily positive and increase the level of performance while allowing nurses to concentrate on their well-being.

Model Case

Mr Chun came into the hospital with complaints of stiffness that is present in the morning and disappears as he would go in his daily activities and joints pains. He has had these symptoms for one year and has been taking over the counter medication to alleviate his symptoms. However, his symptoms were getting more aggressive and came to the hospital for specialized care. On his way to the hospital, he met John, a nurse that was just about to end his night shift. As per nursing ethics, John admitted the patient but informed him that he was to end his turn. Despite this information, Mr Chun would only want a male nurse to attend to him. In line with self-care concept of self-care. John explained to Mr Chun that for him to treat him, he had to get some rest and food. He informed him that all the other nurses in the emergency room were as qualified as he was and was in the best hands. John applied the Dorothea Orem theory on self-care. He refused to treat Mr Chun to maintain and promote his well-being (Ross et al., 2017).

Reflection

Nursing is commonly referred to as a caring profession, and more often than not, nurses do not extend the same amount of care to themselves. As a nurse practitioner, taking care of my patients comes above all, and at times above, my personal needs. One common phenomenon in my practice is burnout.  Often, burnouts manifest through lack of personal fulfilment, stress, emotional exhaustion and compassion fatigue. Poor emotional, physical and mental health are all consequences of burnouts and self-care is a concept that can treat and prevent burnout in nursing and other traits not in line with self-care practices.