People exist within a family or in other small groups, in a community and in a society. As an integral part of an open system, each person's behavior is characterized by unique responses to commonly occurring, multiple and complex interacting stimuli from both internal and external environments. Environment comprises the living and non-living universe in which the person exists. Environment affects the person's health status and the ability to optimize personal potential throughout the life cycle. Each person interacts with the environment and, as a result, continually grows and changes.
Health is a dynamic state which fluctuates over a continuum varying from optimal wellness to death.
Health involves various parameters and levels of functional performance as defined by the individual, by society and by health care professionals. Nursing, a practice discipline, has evolved as the art and science of caring for people in response to their individual, family, community and societal health care requisites and deficits. The goals of nursing practice is to assist others to achieve optimal health through self-care. Analyze social, emotional, physiological, and spiritual factors in determining and meeting the health care requirements of individuals, families and communities. Use theoretical and empirical knowledge and skills drawn from nursing, the humanities and the natural, social and medical sciences as bases for formulating nursing practice decisions.