What are the concepts important to nursing?

Concept Analysis Article presentation
Based on your completion of the Week 5 Learning Activities, find a journal article that explores the theoretic meaning of a nursing concept.
In a 1-2 page handout, address the following:
1) Briefly describe the concept and include an art form that represents or is an expression of the concept. Examples include:
Visual images (photos, cartoons, calendars, paintings, drawings, advertisements). Literature short stories, poems, fairy tales. Music lyrics, rhythm, tones, musical moods. Movie segments.
2) Briefly identify how the authors of the article developed, clarified, or analyzed the concept.
3) Reflect on how you have experienced this concept (phenomenon) in practice.
4) Explain how this article altered your thinking
5) Cite two sources of your information about the concept and the journal article.

Class Note

You may be wondering: What exactly is a concept?
A concept is a label a name for things. Tomey and Alligood (2002) define a concept as an idea or complex mental image of a phenomenon (object, property, or event) (p. 7).
We need to name things to communicate with one another. For example, to read this information, you are looking at a computer. Computer is the name Yndash; label concept for this thing that lets us read and store documents. When I use the concept computer, you have an image in your mind that helps you understand what I mean when I say computer.
Concepts help us categorize our knowledge. For example, humans have given a name to every tree, shrub, and flower that we know exist. When I mention the concept flowers, you have some understanding of what I mean when I use this word. But the type of flower you are visualizing is probably different than the flower I may be thinking about. Are you picturing a tulip? A pansy? A rose? None of these?
Flowers is a concept that is broad and more abstract than the concepts of tulip, pansy, and rose. Yet, the concept of rose is more abstract than the botanical name for each type of rose. Likewise, flowers may be a more abstract concept than rose, but it is concrete compared to more abstract concepts such as garden or nature. As you can see, concepts can range from concrete to abstract.
The concepts we use in nursing also range from concrete to abstract. A patientÂ´s sex, height, and weight are examples of concrete concepts. A patientÂ´s hemoglobin level and blood pressure are slightly more abstract. A patientÂ´s cardiovascular fitness, self-esteem, and quality of life are highly abstract concepts.
As concepts become more abstract, they become more difficult to define. A definition is a statement of the meaning of a word, phrase, or term. Definitions help us correctly use words that form our language for communication. But what is the precise definition and theoretical meaning of the concept wellness? What is the precise definition of the concept maternal role attachment? For many concepts, their meaning depends on who is using the label.
For example, letÂ´s identify concepts that are represented in a painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As you view this painting, what do you see?
Look at the title of the painting: Saint Zenobius Resuscitating a Dead Child. The title tells you that the painter is trying to convey a religious or spiritual meaning or perspective. If you were viewing this painting while standing next to a priest or minister, what do you think they would see in the painting? What words or concepts would they communicate to you? Perhaps the priest might say, he sees a bishop and people praying. Other concepts might be: Christianity, life-after-death, faith and hope.
As a nurse, some of the concepts I see are: caring, sadness, and hope. What do you see from the perspective of a nurse?
LetÂ´s view another artwork, this time from the Paris WebMuseum.
From a nursing perspective, what concepts do you see in this painting? Some of the concepts I see are: illness, caring, elderly patient, nourishment, family, and social support. You can most likely name numerous other concepts that are represented in this painting.
For a completely different perspective, think about what an art critic would see when looking at either of these two paintings. An art critic would look at the style, meaning, brush strokes, and time period of the paintings important concepts that have meaning and are understood by members of this discipline.
McEwen and Wills (2002) state that concepts explicate the subject matter of the theories of a discipline (p. 50). For example, concepts from psychology include personality, cognitive thinking, and coping strategies. Concepts from biology include cells, species, and evolution. Many of these concepts also have meaning for us as nurses.
In nursing, we often borrow concepts from other disciplines, such as adaptation, culture, and homeostasis. Nurses borrow numerous concepts from medicineÂ´s theories of bodily function that are based on the study of physiology.
Some concepts have been derived from other disciplines but have been adapted to fit a nursing perspective. Examples include concepts from MaslowÂ´s hierarchy of human needs and SelyeÂ´s theory of stress. Other concepts have been developed directly from nursing practice and research, such as maternal-infant bonding, health-promoting behaviors, and self-care deficit.
As you can see, a concept can have meanings that vary depending on the perspective of the person using them. Thus theorists in the various disciplines define concepts so that readers can understand their work. In a sense, conceptual meaning is created by disciplines so that its members can clearly communicate with each other.
Nursing is now going about the business of clarifying, recognizing, and defining concepts that describe the phenomena of our discipline. The process of exploring the meaning of concepts and bringing clarity to their definitions is referred to as concept analysis.
What are the concepts important to nursing? ?Nursing as a young science is grappling with this issue.