Nurses recognize both the commonalities and differences of people. Humankind is moving from an ethnocentric to global perspective. The person is capable of choice and has free will tempered by the context of one's past, present, and future. The individual is inherently good, has rights, and is self-directed. At the same time, each person recognizes the rights of others and works toward increasing freedom and emancipation for self and other persons.
Conflicting rights are to be resolved, resulting in balancing and harmony.
Such balance and harmony are sought at all levels for individuals and groups, from electrolytes to the cosmos. The person is interdependent and lives in reciprocity, connection, affiliation, and relationship. Through dialogue and exchange, together with self-reflection, the person makes meaning. Through such meaning, the person understands self, and other persons, particularly within family and community, as well as the larger world. Personal meanings and knowledge are shared through distributed cognition.