dness or wholeness of developed human structures and bodily and mental functioning (Fawcett, 1989, p. 218). A person's sense of well-being is differentiated from health, in that well-being is a perceptual state, as contrasted to health, which is a physical state. Health is also differentiated from disease or illness, which are involved in the determination of the state of health, and which may occur when care is not maintained. Health is viewed as a continuum from excellent to poor and disease as a separate dichotomy of presence or absence.
Nursing in the context of the metaparadigm is the identification of an individual's need for care action, together with provision and management of such care on a continuous basis in order to sustain life and health, recover from disease or injury, and cope with their effects (Fawcett, 1989, p. 220). Where the physician is concerned with a patient's life processes that have been interrupted by illness, the nurse is concerned with a patient's continuing therapeutic care. Nursing is required when the person is unable to engage in self-care. The ability of the nurse to provide patient care is referred to as nursing agency. The goal of nursing agency is to help individuals meet their own therapeutic care demands. The three components of nursing agency are (1) helping the patient to accomplish therapeutic care, (2) helping the patient to move toward responsible and independent care action, and (3) helping members of a patient's family to become competent in providing care agency for the patient. The goal of nursing within the Corbin and Strauss (1992, pp. 9-28) Nursing Model is to assist afflicted individuals to shape their illness course while maintaining quality of life. Nursing care is perceived as supportive assistance, and "centers around health promotion and collaboration with the individual, family, or community, and self care or management of the chronic condition (Corbin and Strauss,...