I have chosen the first scenario, in which I am a nurse at a primary care clinic, and my patient is a 48 years old woman who has been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. To ensure the effectiveness of treatment, she has to change her eating habits to lose some weight, but she claims that it will be almost impossible for her to change her habits and stop eating the products she typically consumes. Her main argument is that she cooks for the whole family, and her husband, his father, and two adolescent children are used to the food they normally eat.
This is a rather typical situation, and many households consume products that damage health and can potentially lead to the long-term metabolic disorders. Thus, it is of the greatest importance to show her that she has to persuade her family to change their eating habits; otherwise, the whole family may be at risk.
Possible solutions of this problem may be based on the Human Becoming Theory developed by Rosemarie Rizzo Parse. This theory focuses on guiding the nurses in their practice by showing patients that quality of life from the human’s own perspective is of the greatest importance in the treatment process (“Human Becoming Theory”, 2011). I will use this theory to show the 48 years old female patient that her eating habits define the quality of the life she leads, and that improving the quality of life will have a significantly positive impact on her health, and health of her family.
There are three basic concepts of this theory, and I will apply them all to persuade the patient to change her eating patterns. The concepts of the Human Becoming Theory are meaning, rhythmicity, and transcendence (nursing-theory.org, n.d.). These principles are the foundation of the theory, and I will use each of them to show her that changing the way she cooks and chooses products will help her improve the quality of her life, and will have a positive effect on her health. The first concept is meaning, and this principle defines that people participate in the process of creating their lives and how they understand what is real or not, by living their lives according to the values they possess (“Humanbecoming”, n.d.). Another principle is rhythmicity, and this concept defines the patterns of human experience, and the fact that there are some limitations and opportunities at every moment of time, and these limitations and opportunities emerge within certain cycles. Finally, the third principle is transcendence, according to which there is an ambiguity of the changes that always happen in our lives, and at every moment, a human being should live knowing and not knowing how the life will change the next moment.
Human Becoming Theory is a theory that is can be applied in nursing as an alternative to various psycho-social and bio-medical theories and approaches (“Humanbecoming”, n.d.). This theory focuses on living quality of people, their beliefs about the world they live in, and the ethos of becoming human beings. Based on the given theory, nurses should guide themselves in the process of treatment by focusing on the quality of lives of the patients. According to this theory, the main approach in nursing should be focused on nurse-patient relationship, and a patient-focused approach can be very effective in terms of providing the most effective health care treatment by the nurses.
In the everyday practice of nurses, the Humanbecoming theory can be applied through such basic processes, as paying more attention to the needs of the patients and spending more time on talking with them. These actions will help the nurses gain more trust of the patients, and they will believe in what they hear from the nurses. In this way, nurses will be able to persuade the patients to change the quality of their lives, and the process of communication with the patients will bring better results.
In nursing practice, implementation of the Humanbecoming theory led to the personal transformation of the nurses, and it had a positive effect on the treatment process. The results of the implementation of the Humanbecoming theory showed that nurses have become more concerned and respectful of the needs of their patients, and realized their role in helping their patients change their lives by creating their own lifestyles, and this has led to the improvement of the patients’ quality of life (Fawcett & DeSanto-Madeya, 2012, p. 356). Patients started feeling themselves more respected and honored, it helped them determine the meaning of some situations, and it supported them in making better choices. Human Becoming Theory guided the nurses and helped them spend more time on talking to patients and listening to them. As a result, patients were more satisfied with nursing and health care treatment they received.
In my own words, I think that this theory is aimed to show that quality of life and life itself are interrelated concepts, and we can impact the quality of our lives by making certain choices that depend on how we perceive the world around us. In addition, some situations, in which we are to make the choices, are cyclic, and in every situation, we can have certain opportunities and limitations that will also define our choices. In addition, this theory is based on the fact that some changes and situations cannot be predicted, so we should make the choices based on the facts that we know and don’t know at the same time.
The concepts of the Humanbecoming theory can be successfully applied to the scenario mentioned above. Firstly, showing the meaning concept to the patient will help her realize that she is the person who creates her own reality by choosing certain values, and if a healthy life-style becomes a value, her life can be significantly changed. Secondly, the patient faces some limitations set by her family’s eating habits, but if she does not make any changes, the situation will happen again, and her Type 2 DM will get worse. Finally, explaining the importance of transcendence will help the patient realize that there is always a chance to change everything, so she should use this change to improve the quality of her life.
I believe that human becoming theory can be a great approach in the nursing practice, as this theory can help in focusing on the needs of every single patient. The patient-focused model can help to increase the effectiveness of the treatment process, and the concepts of this theory can be a guide for the nurses in their everyday practice and their efforts to explain the patients the necessity of making certain choices that can improve the quality of their lives.
References
Fawcett, J. & DeSanto-Madeya, S. (2012). Contemporary Nursing Knowledge: Analysis and Evaluation of Nursing Models and Theories (3rd ed., p. 356). Philadelphia: FA Davis Company.
Humanbecoming. (n.d.). Humanbecoming.org. Retrieved 8 July 2016 from http://www.humanbecoming.org/human-becoming.php
Human Becoming Theory. (2011). Currentnursing.com. Retrieved 8 July 2016 from http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Rosemary_Pars_Human_Becoming_Theory.html
Nursing-theory.org. (n.d.). Human Becoming Theory. Nursing Theory. Retrieved 8 July 2016 from http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/parse-human-becoming-theory.php
