Introduction to Nursing: Concepts of Spirituality, Multicultural Care, Psychosocial Health, Stress, and Wellness

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental nursing topics across five lecture modules: spirituality and spiritual assessment, multicultural care and cultural humility, psychosocial health and self-concept, stress response and adaptation models, and concepts of wellness, illness behavior, and health promotion.

Religion

An ordered system of beliefs, practices, and codes of conduct associated with an organized structure (such as a church, mosque, or synagogue) that integrates beliefs and values into a way of living.

Spirituality

A personal journey taking place over time that involves the accumulation of life experiences and understanding, reflecting an attempt to find meaning, purpose, and connection.

Three Spiritual Needs (Shelly & Fish, 1988)

The three fundamental spiritual requirements identified in nursing: (1) need for meaning and purpose, (2) need for love and relatedness, and (3) need for forgiveness.

Spiritual Distress

A state of suffering related to an impaired ability to experience and integrate meaning and purpose in life, which can manifest as spiritual pain, alienation, anxiety, guilt, anger, loss, or despair.

HOPE Acronym (Anandarajah & Hight, 2001)

A spiritual assessment framework where H stands for sources of hope, O for organized religion, P for personal spirituality and practice, and E for effects on medical care and end-of-life issues.

Agnostic

An individual who holds that nothing is known or can be known about the existence or nature of God or a higher power.

Atheist

A person who denies the existence of God or a higher power.

Culture

A complex, dynamic concept encompassing social norms, behaviors, beliefs, and values of a group of people that are learned, shared, and passed down from generation to generation.

Ethnicity

A social identity whose members share a common social and cultural heritage, characteristics, or ancestral origins.

Race

A categorization of people based on shared biological similarities and inherited physical characteristics.

Acculturation

The process of adapting to a new or dominant culture while continuing to retain aspects of one's original cultural identity.

Assimilation

The process of fully adopting the dominant culture's values, behaviors, and norms, often resulting in the loss of earlier cultural practices and heritage language.

Cultural Stereotype

An unsubstantiated, overgeneralized assumption that all members of a cultural, racial, or ethnic group think, feel, or act the same way.

Cultural Archetype

A broad, recurrent pattern or generalized model based on facts that provides guidance about a group without assuming it fits every individual.

Complementary Medicine

Rigorously tested holistic healthcare therapies used to complement and support conventional biomedical medicine, such as chiropractic care, biofeedback, and certain supplements.

Alternative Medicine

Holistic therapies used instead of conventional biomedical medicine, such as iridology, aromatherapy, and magnet therapy.

Ayurveda

An indigenous holistic healthcare system originating in India that attributes health to the balance of three doshas: kapha (creation), pitta (preservation), and vata (destruction).

Theory of Cultural Humility Attributes

Five key attributes required of nurses to practice cultural humility: (1) Openness, (2) Self-Awareness, (3) Egoless, (4) Supportive Interaction, and (5) Self-Reflection and Critique.

BALI Model

A mnemonic for delivering culturally responsive nursing care: B (Be aware of your own cultural background), A (Appreciate that each patient is unique), L (Learn about the patient's cultural group), and I (Incorporate cultural values into care).

Medical Interpreter vs. Translator

Translators convert written text (e.g., books, contracts, websites), whereas interpreters convert spoken or sign language during direct interpersonal communication (e.g., medical appointments, court proceedings).

Self-Concept

An individual's overall view and evaluation of themselves, shaped by physical appearance, role success, intellectual abilities, coping mechanisms, and social relationships.

Components of Self-Concept

The four interrelated dimensions that comprise an individual's self-concept: Body Image, Role Performance, Personal Identity, and Self-Esteem.

Body Image

The mental picture and cognitive evaluation of one's physical self, including appearance, function, and perceived changes.

Role Performance

The specific actions, behaviors, and duties a person demonstrates when fulfilling societal and personal roles.

Personal Identity

An individual's view of themselves as a unique human being who is distinct and separate from others, remaining relatively constant and consistent over time.

Self-Esteem

How well a person likes and respects themselves, fundamentally determined by the degree of difference between the ideal self and actual self.

Anxiety

A common, vague emotional response to a typically unknown stressor resulting from psychological conflict, accompanied by physiological symptoms.

Four Levels of Anxiety

The progressive levels of anxiety: Mild (alert, increased perceptual field and motivation), Moderate (perceptual field narrows, directable), Severe (tunnel vision, impaired reasoning, difficult to direct), and Panic (loss of control, dread, terror, non-directable).

Depression

A psychiatric illness marked by maladaptive emotional responses such as sadness, emptiness, and impaired functioning, occurring at a $2:1$ female-to-male ratio.

Stress

Any disturbance in an individual's normal balanced state, triggering a unique physical or emotional response that can be harmful (distress) or motivating (eustress).

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Hans Selye's theoretical model describing the body's nonspecific physiological response to continuous stress through three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion (or recovery).

Alarm Reaction Stage

The initial stage of GAS in which the sympathetic nervous system and neuroendocrine release (CRH, ACTH, cortisol, epinephrine) activate the fight-or-flight response, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels.

Resistance Stage

The second stage of GAS where parasympathetic activity balances sympathetic stimulation and hormone levels normalize as the body attempts to maintain homeostasis.

Exhaustion Stage

The final stage of GAS occurring when coping mechanisms and energy reserves are completely depleted, causing physiological adaptation to fail and increasing the risk of disease or death.

Local Adaptation Syndrome (LAS)

A short-term, localized physiological response to stress involving a specific body part, tissue, or organ, primarily seen as the reflex pain response or the inflammatory response.

Adaptation

The desired outcome of stress management involving physical, cognitive, and behavioral adjustments that allow normal growth, development, and effective response to life challenges.

Hardiness

A personality trait that promotes adaptation to stress, characterized by three components: commitment, control, and challenge.

Adaptive Coping

Healthy choices and problem-solving strategies that directly alter the stressor or reduce its negative physical and psychological effects.

Maladaptive Coping

Unhealthy coping styles (such as denial, social withdrawal, overeating, or substance abuse) that provide only temporary relief and introduce further harm.

Health (WHO Definition)

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Disease

A medical term referring to pathological changes in the structure or function of the body or mind.

Illness

The unique, subjective response of a person to a disease, causing an abnormal process and altered level of functioning.

Acute Illness

An illness that has a rapid onset of severe symptoms, lasts a relatively short period of time, and is usually reversible (e.g., appendicitis, influenza).

Chronic Illness

A health condition lasting a long duration (usually $>6\text{ months}$) that causes permanent or irreversible bodily changes and requires long-term management.

Morbidity

A public health statistic measuring how frequently a specific disease or health disruption occurs within a population.

Mortality

A public health statistic representing the number of deaths resulting from a disease or health problem in a population.

Five Stages of Illness Behavior

The progression of behaviors an individual passes through during an illness: Stage 1 (Experiencing symptoms), Stage 2 (Assuming the sick role), Stage 3 (Seeking Professional Care), Stage 4 (Assuming a dependent role), and Stage 5 (Achieving recovery and rehabilitation).

Health Promotion

Activities motivated by a desire to increase well-being, optimize function, and develop physical, spiritual, and mental health.

Health Protection

Preventive activities motivated by a desire to avoid illness, detect disease early, and maintain function within existing health constraints.

Levels of Prevention

The three tiers of health protection: Primary (intervening before issues arise to decrease risk), Secondary (screening and early detection of diseases), and Tertiary (managing disease post-diagnosis to mitigate long-term impacts).

Stages of Change Model (Prochaska & DiClemente)

A behavioral health model detailing the progressive phases of health habit transformation: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

The conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that influence quality-of-life outcomes, risks, and functioning across domains such as economic stability, education, healthcare access, and neighborhood.

Health Equity

The attainment of the highest level of health for all people, which requires valuing everyone equally and addressing avoidable inequalities.

Health Disparity

A particular type of health difference closely linked with social, economic, or environmental disadvantage that adversely affects groups of people.