| Description |
The purpose of this study was to identify traditional concepts of health and nursing in Korea. These concepts have their place in the traditional Korean world view. The T'ai-Chi-Tu Shuo and other classical works define three principles of the traditional Eastern-Asian world view. They are change, unity, and humanity. In order to locate the concepts of health and nursing, each of these three principles was divided into subprinciples: (a) change into production, cycle, mean, and synchronicity; (b) unity into organic system, immanency, holism, and harmony; and (c) humanity into reverence, loyalty, empathy, and filial piety. A study of the classical works revealed three components of the concept of health: (a) conformity with natural law, (b) temperance, and (c) self-regulation. These three elements were correlated with the 12 subprinciples of cosmology mentioned above. This correlation led to the definition of health as 'the process pursuing harmonious relations with the environment through self-regulation based on the principles of mean.' From the classical works, the following aspects of nursing care were evident: environment, diet, exercise, bedside care, medication, fetal discipline, and infant care. In their treatment, it became clear that nursing is closely related to the humanistic principles of loyalty, empathy, and filial piety, in addition to those of mean and harmony. This correlation led to the definition of nursing as 'caring for others with loyalty and empathy to promote their health and their recovery from illness.' The traditional Korean concept of health is a naturalistic view that emphasizes harmony with nature, while the concept of nursing calls for tending others with wholehearted devotion and empathy. This background study provides an understanding of traditional Korean concepts of health and nursing in order to facilitate nursing reforms in Korea. |
