Introduction
Defining health as a state of being has always represented a source of confusion for a number of experts due to the lack of a coherent set of criteria for it. Despite being a rather easy to perceive the notion of health is nearly impossible to understand it without introducing the opposing notion of diseases or omitting certain aspects of well-being. Nevertheless, health can be defined as the state of having the functions of the organism running properly, the emotional responses being within the established norm, and the spiritual goals successfully being pursued.
Definitions: Discussion
When considering the traditional approaches to defining health, one should first mention the most commonly used one that suggests juxtaposing health to illness. The specified definition suggests in a rather blunt and self-explanatory manner that health is the absence of diseases or disorders in an individual (Rotter et al. 366). Although the suggested definition might seem as quite exhaustive, it still lacks the necessary depth. Namely, by defining health on the basis of the phenomena that it does not include does not allow shaping the idea of what health actually is. Rather, the proposed definition points to the notions that are not included into the concept of health, which does not provide the actual definition for the subject matter.
Furthermore, identifying health as something that is contrary to being ill or unwell provides a rather unclear description since the state of being ill or unwell does not have clear boundaries with health, either. Specifically, when considering mental health issues, one will have to admit that the stat of normalcy ranges significantly in individuals (Rotter et al. 367). Similarly, thin physical conditions, diseases that remain dormant for years may prevent one from being classified as ill, yet it carrying the disease does not place an individual into the healthy category, either.
Therefore, when defining health from a nursing perspective one should focus on providing clear criteria for the being healthy, as well as accurate descriptors of health. With the specified approach in mind, one will be able to suggest more sensible definitions of health, such as having all systems of the human body functioning properly (Lalani 440). The proposed definition is more clear since it offers an accurate descriptor and measurable criteria for determining health.
At the same time, it is worth noting that health involves not only physical and mental capacities, but also the extent of emotional and spiritual well-being. For this reason, the definition of health can be worded as the state of the human body functions running, emotional responses being adequate, and spiritual needs being met (Lalani 440). The definition offered above seems to be the most reliable one since it covers a broad range of aspects of health, thus, providing one with an opportunity to measure the phenomenon of health.
Conclusion
By incorporating the spiritual and emotional well-being along with the physical and mental one into the definition, it can produce comprehensive description of health that nurses will find especially useful. The definition of heath as testate of having one’s physiological, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs met, one approaches the most comprehensive definition of health. Using it, nurses can improve patient outcomes significantly by incorporating factors other than those tethered to physical and mental health in order to improve the quality of care. Thus, opportunities for measuring health and introducing appropriate interventions to keep it safe can be possible.
Works Cited
Lalani, Nasreen. “Meanings and Interpretations of Spirituality in Nursing and Health.” Religions, vol. 11, no. 9, 2020, pp. 428-441.
Rotter, Thomas, et al. “What Is Lean Management in Health Care? Development of an Operational Definition for a Cochrane Systematic Review.” Evaluation & the Health Professions, vol. 42, no. 3, 2019, pp. 366-390.