Nursing as defined by the American Nurses Association (ANA) is the “protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations”.

The metaparadigm theories of nursing include the concepts of person, health, environment and nursing. These concepts are very important to nursing because the delivery of standard and efficient patient care will lead to prompt patient recovery and lead to ability to function within these four parts.

Person
This refers to the individual as a whole according to Martha Rogers in the theory science of unitary human beings. In caring for the patient, the nurse needs to have good relationship with the patient, the family and even friends since these factors make up a person as a whole. Involving the family in patient care and sometimes-close friends will bring about speedy recovery of the patient.

Health
Health is a state of well being and using of ones power to the fullest. The nurse helps the patient attain optimum health through assessing the patient’s physical, mental/emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing. Example, through pain reduction, a patient can perform and complete activities of daily living thereby achieving physical wellbeing. This will also help him be able to interact with others around him, which will promote his social and emotional wellbeing.

Environment
Reading from Creasia, Joan L. and Friberg, E.E. (2011): conceptual foundations: the bridge to professional nursing practice, Florence Nightingales environmental theory points that nurse’s role was to manipulate the environment to facilitate and encourage patient recovery. This entails external and internal factors including social factors. This includes provision