Connectedness―A Concept for Understanding and Enhancing Spiritual Well-being

Ⅰ．Introduction

　Nursing scholars around the world generally agree on three basic points: First, that (1) nursing is a human science; second, that (2) humans are bio-psycho-social-spiritual and cultural beings; and third, that (3) promotion of optimal health or wellness in human beings is nursing's ethical and social mandate.

　Focus on the whole person is not new to nursing. Indeed, it is part of our heritage from Florence Nightingale. Nightingale demonstrated concern for the well-being of the total person (and the family), for creating a healthy environment, and for the development of nursing's role in promoting the health and well-being of individuals and families. With this heritage nursing has maintained commitment to promotion of health and wholeness as its primary concern. That commitment is affirmed in nursing science literature although with diverse viewpoints of what health as wholeness is, how it can be studied, or even promoted. Thus, current debate in nursing is not about the importance or primacy of wholeness, but about its mystery, and about which frameworks best support knowledge development related to wholeness. Imbedded in our attempts at knowledge development is the exploration of cultual influences on our understanding of wholeness, and in identifying nursing approaches to promoting wholeness.