Health, which fluctuates throughout the life span, is a gestalt of wellness and illness. Wellness and illness are coexisting and interacting phenomena. The unitary person interacts with the totality of the environment, and the unique quality of this interaction influences one s health. Health is a synthesis of dynamic patterns of energy within the individual and between the person and environment. Health patterns maintain themselves and manifest multiple configurations of individual and environmental relations.
Health is self-perceived and relative to each person s or group s beliefs and values.
Common approaches to the understanding of the phenomenon of health stem from theories of human development, stress, disease, adaptation, crisis, life style, change, and consciousness. Because health patterns are dynamic, the recognition, identification, and facilitation requires periodic assessment. Nursing is a humanistic profession which respects the human being s dignity, integrity, and right to self-determination. The focus of nursing is the health of the person throughout the life span. Nursing assumes a responsibility to society to develop and transmit knowledge and to provide service to individuals, families, groups, and communities as clients.