This paper examines the multifaceted concept of health as it relates to nursing practice and medical philosophy. It traces historical perspectives from ancient Greek ideas of bodily balance through medieval humoral theory and non-Western traditions like Ayurveda, then analyzes contemporary definitions including the WHO's broad 1947 framework. The paper discusses how modern nursing incorporates health as a holistic concept encompassing physical, mental, social, and environmental dimensions. It critiques limitations in current health definitions and measurement approaches, arguing that nursing professionals must balance medical and personal assessments while considering social inequalities and individual patient experiences to provide comprehensive care.
Many efforts have been made toward achieving a common understanding of the concept of health (Roden & Jarvis, 2012). Despite these efforts, profound controversies persist in establishing a desirable universal understanding of health (Nordenfelt, 1984). In medicine, society's ethical concerns, and public policy matters, the concept of health is indispensable (Jeffrey & Jennifer, 2000).
In contemporary philosophy, the concept of health focuses on the challenges of establishing the nature of an individual's condition from a scientific perspective (Irvine, 2007). This perspective often omits the equally important assessment of whether a person's condition is desirable or undesirable. Other philosophical approaches dig deeper to describe not only scientific facts but also positive aspects such as mental and physical health (Roden & Jarvis, 2012).
It is apparent that creating a definitive description of health is challenging, as evidenced by the broad definition offered by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO (1947) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." This definition raises important questions about how the terms used can be expanded or narrowed to achieve a more concise and definitive understanding of health. Some scholars have chosen to redefine the term entirely, ignoring the WHO definition, while others have adopted it with supplementation or without alteration.
The idea that different parts of the body have distinct functions underpins a powerful notion: that health comprises a balance of bodily organs and functions. Therefore, a healthy person is one in balance, with bodily organs interlocking to perform different functions harmoniously. This idea was first developed in 460–380 BCE schools of thought. The concept was popularized during the medieval period through the theory of four bodily fluids (humors): blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile (Jeffrey & Jennifer, 2000).
The concept of bodily balance was also strong among many non-Western societies. For example, the Ayurvedic tradition of Indian medicine defines an unhealthy state as one where the body's humors are in disequilibrium. In Ayurvedic medical practice, three humors act in the human body: breath, phlegm (kapha), and bile (pitta) (Singhal & Patterson, 1993). The proportions of these humors depend on an individual's lifestyle, environment, and diet (Singhal & Patterson, 1993).
This paper examines ideas about the concept of health as they relate to nursing practice, identifying interlocking and diverging views. Its purpose is to highlight the challenges in achieving a universally accepted description of health and to suggest sufficient measures for understanding health and articulating means of incorporating a purposive approach to achieving a healthy state.
The concept of health is well-known in nursing, with scholars arguing that health is pivotal to nursing philosophy (Irvine, 2007). Nursing's role in the concept of health is to deliver holistic and life-enhancing measures to a person's health (Irvine, 2007). Traditional concepts of health include promoting, preventing, restoring, and containing disease. In contemporary practice, the concept focuses on behavioral, lifestyle, and health education (Irvine, 2007). Modern health concepts integrate traditional understanding with new paradigms encompassing social, political, and economic perspectives (Irvine, 2007).
In relation to nursing practice, health incorporates all stages of the human lifespan, including individual perspectives, religious ties, family aspects, and societal considerations (Whitehead, 2011). The modern concept of health is therefore more comprehensive than traditional perspectives and provides guidelines for medical practice and public health policies. Modern health ideals aim to support societal growth through supportive healthy environments, stronger community affiliations, finance-oriented public health policies, and reoriented health service centers (Roden & Jarvis, 2012). Nurses undertake community empowerment to develop community-oriented social-political action within modern health concepts (Roden & Jarvis, 2012).
The nursing discipline participates in health practices by applying knowledge of health and disease to determine an individual's wellness or illness (Irvine, 2007). To identify differences in health and social outcomes, nurses conduct investigations of individuals. Information ranging from background data and assessments of current and past bodily conditions provides necessary data for scientific health determination. Nurses combine this information with environmental factors to draw conclusions about individual health outcomes.
Under the concept of health, nurses identify possible gaps in society regarding health attainment. With these identifications, they provide policy recommendations and undertake health-promoting activities. The concept of health highlights aspects necessary for attaining desirable conditions and enables nursing professionals to relate to their communities and educate them on health promotion measures. Nurses' awareness of the health concept influences early detection of potential outbreaks and health calamities (Irvine, 2007), enabling measures to counteract potential epidemics by treating diseases early and controlling their spread.
Characterizing the condition comprising health or well-being is not an easy task. Including too many variables in the health concept risks confusing happiness with health. Excluding variables, conversely, may obscure potential detection of illness. The WHO definition examined earlier has been criticized for being too broad to accurately articulate what health comprises. From the WHO definition, one might conclude that all individuals living in poverty are unhealthy. Because modern health measures incorporate many additional traits, a majority of the world's population could be classified as unhealthy (Whitehead, 2011).
For a body to be considered healthy, both body and mind must function well and be in proper order. The question then arises: what criteria determine whether the mind or body is functioning well, and what is the ideal measure of proper functioning? Traditionally, an individual's subjective assessment served as the ultimate criterion. When a person feels well, their body and mind are functioning properly, and they are healthy. Modern medical practice combines traditional assessment with technologically advanced measures that accurately depict health status. Determining individual wellness depends on nurses' articulate application of tests and inquiries to provide links and conclusions about probable wellness or illness (Roden & Jarvis, 2012).
Modern health outcome measures sometimes disregard an individual's lived experience, and nurses attending to patients risk misdiagnosis. Understanding the health concept requires a balanced mix of medical and personal aspects to reach an inclusive determination of disease and illness (Roden & Jarvis, 2012). This approach affords the nursing profession the ability to consider not only the negative aspects of health but also positive aspects. Health encompasses the whole—both disease or ailment and the person experiencing it. Therefore, focus on attaining a healthy condition should not concentrate solely on disease; rather, it should incorporate factors relating to the patient and their environment. Critics of the medical notion of health note that the patient and their prevailing environment are often disregarded (Roden & Jarvis, 2012).
Lower-class patients have access to less capable health facilities compared to upper-class patients (Whitehead, 2011). This disparity demonstrates that environment and social class play critical roles in influencing health. Additionally, elderly members of society are highly vulnerable to disease and illness owing to lack of proper care measures. These disparities play a critical role in determining health in society and must be incorporated into health concepts and measures for achieving a healthy state.
There is a need for a holistic understanding of the concept of health—not necessarily as a universal terminology, but rather as a term that factors in various aspects relating to different social faculties. The nursing profession and medical practitioners must be made aware of the various factors impacting health outcomes and must incorporate them into treatment and care. Policymakers must address existing inequalities in social strata to promote comprehensive efforts toward achieving equitable health outcomes.
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