Kontakt 2013, 15(1):14-21 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2013.003

Quality of life as a part of nursingNursing - Review

Věra Olišarová^*, František Dolák, Valérie Tóthová

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra ošetřovatelství a porodní asistence

Philosophy of contemporary nursing is inseparably associated with holism, with introducing the most recent scientific knowledge into nursing practice and accessibility of quality care to healthy as well as diseased individuals. In spite of the fact that this is a relatively young scientific discipline, it is supported by quality theoretical as well as scientific background and terminology. The main targets are maintaining, supporting and recovering health of individuals similarly as development of self-sufficiency and moderation of suffering in incurable patients or possibly helping in quiet dying and death. For this purpose, it is not sufficient to consequently implement the ordered procedures only, but it is also necessary to take into account the individual nature of each patient and his/her specific needs and preferences. The term "quality of life" has been discussed in relationship to the health and life from the second half of the 20th century. Although it is considerably affected by subjective feelings of satisfaction and objective capability of self-fulfilment in everyday life and by the availability of material as well as non-material sources, its importance as related to nursing cannot be reduced just to the result of the implementation of accurately defined procedures. The quality of life is a holistic phenomenon, which is determined by cultural, political, economic and many further factors. Thus, for providing quality and effective care in accordance with most recent knowledge, it is of importance to understand its position in context of social sciences as well as in historical context of nursing. The work presented here is thus focused on delimitation of the relationship of the quality of life to nursing based on analyzing sources available with the use of the databases ScienceDirect, PubMed, EBSCO and SpringerLink. The work also offers an outline of research activities in the Czech Republic compiled with the use of the database IS VaVaI, serving for the accumulation, processing and subsequent use of data on the research, development and innovations, which are supported from public financial means. In the field of the definition and investigation of the quality of life as related to different diseases, it includes total of 33 research projects implemented since 2000.

Keywords: quality of life; determinants of quality of life; nursing; quality of life in nursing

Received: September 20, 2012; Accepted: November 29, 2012; Published: March 15, 2013  Show citation