Nursing Students' Perceptions of Nursing Metaparadigms: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Background:The paradigm is a vital concept steering the development of a scientific discipline. Paradigms that shape the education, research, and practice steps of a discipline are defined as metaparadigms.Purpose:The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of nursing students regarding metaparadigms in nursing at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey.Methods:This was designed as a descriptive phenomenological study, and data were collected from 13 fourth-year students who were chosen via a purposeful sampling method and interviewed face-to-face using a semistructured format. Data were analyzed using the data analysis steps of Giorgi, who is an expert in descriptive phenomenological studies.Results:Most of the participants in this study associated nursing with humanism. Some of the participants stated that a fundamental building block of the nursing profession is conscience, whereas others stated that nursing is a way to touch people's lives and is now regarded as a professional practice. It has been reported that students have difficulties identifying metaparadigms in nursing and that they believe that human beings have the potential to widen their horizons with wisdom and social skills. According to the participants, the health metaparadigm refers to the harmony between human beings and their environment and to the autonomy of the individual. Moreover, the participants emphasized the well-being of individuals.Conclusions/Implications for Practice:The participants in this study characterized humans with well-being, transcendence, adaptation and interaction skills with their environment, and harmony beyond physiological mechanisms, which was considered to be promising for the perception of future nurses. It is recommended for nursing educators to enable their students to raise their professional awareness and to internalize professional values.

Nurses’ perspectives of an environment of optimum mental health: a grounded theory study

“…In the context of the current study we refer to them as components because they don’t exist along a continuum nor do they have bipolar characteristics. Our perspective is consistent with Deliktas et al. (2019) and Lindahl (2018) who refer to them as characteristics rather than dimensions.…”

“…Environment as an external entity was discovered as a supra-system that forms the surroundings of the human being with whom it interacts to impact on well-being. The perspectives of the nurses in the current study are consistent with other nurse theorists and researchers (Deliktas et al., 2019; Lindahl, 2018; Nightingale, 1946) who emphasised environmental physio-psycho-social characteristics that facilitate healing and mental well-being.…”

“…Deliktas et al. (2019) defined the environment metaparadigm as all concrete and abstract internal and external phenomena and processes that interact with an individual to influence their health.…”

“Compassion is the mainstay of nursing care”: A qualitative study on the perception of care and compassion in senior nursing students

“…It is thought that students being in their fourth year and their theoretical and practical classes and taking lessons such as Developing Care Behaviors, Nursing Philosophy, Psychology, Health Care Ethics, History of Nursing, and Deontology affected these comprehensive definitions. In a qualitative study conducted on nursing students, “individual” was defined as a person who is a wise and potentially self‐transcendent being, in interaction with the environment, socially adaptable, and a person with management skills (Deliktas et al, 2019). Bringing together the way student nurses define person and patient may better contribute to planning the education process and to providing better nursing care.…”

Undergraduate nursing students’ experiences of becoming a professional nurse: a longitudinal study

“…Students are motivated to learn when they feel included in the clinical environment, while experiences of exclusion and lack of belonging influences negatively on motivation to learn [14]. Deliktas et al [15] found that undergraduate nursing students' approach to the nursing profession is associated with humanism, also identified as conscience, coupled with an ambition to touch people's lives. It requires great effort from the students together with substantial support from teachers and supervisors to develop a comfortable professional identity upon graduation [16].…”