Abstract
Contemporary nursing is based on a conglomerate of theoretical nursing models. These models each incorporate four central concepts: person, health, environment, and nursing. By defining these concepts, nurses develop an individual framework from which they base their nursing practice. As an aspiring nurse practitioner in the gastroenterology field, I have retrospectively assessed my personal definitions of person, health, environment, and nursing. From these definitions, I am able to incorporate specific theoretical frameworks into my personal belief system, thus formulating a basis for my nursing practice. This foundation is comprised of the influence of nursing theorists Jean Watson, Sister Callista Roy, Kolcaba, Florence Nightingale, and Ida J. Orlando; the Perioperative Patient-Focused Model; Watson's Theory of Human Caring; theories regarding transpersonal human caring and healing; and feminist theories. Therefore, this article describes self-examination of nursing care by defining central nursing concepts, acknowledging the influence of nursing theorists and theories, and developing a personal framework from which I base my nursing practice.