Descriptor: Person-centered care focuses on the individual within multiple complicated contexts, including family and/or important others. Person-centered care is holistic, individualized, just, respectful, compassionate, coordinated, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate. Person-centered care builds on a scientific body of knowledge that guides nursing practice regardless of specialty or functional area.
Contextual Statement: Person-centered care is the core purpose of nursing as a discipline. This purpose intertwines with any functional area of nursing practice, from the point of care where the hands of those that give and receive care meet, to the point of systems-level nursing leadership. Foundational to person-centered care is respect for diversity, differences, preferences, values, needs, resources, and the determinants of health unique to the individual. The person is a full partner and the source of control in team-based care. Person-centered care requires the intentional presence of the nurse seeking to know the totality of the individual’s lived experiences and connections to others (family, important others, community). As a scientific and practice discipline, nurses employ a relational lens that fosters mutuality, active participation, and individual empowerment. This focus is foundational to educational preparation from entry to advanced levels irrespective of practice areas.
With an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, person-centered care is based on best evidence and clinical judgment in the planning and delivery of care across time, spheres of care, and developmental levels. Contributing to or making diagnoses is one essential aspect of nursing practice and critical to an informed plan of care and improving outcomes of care (Olson et al., 2019). Diagnoses at the system-level are equally as relevant, affecting operations that impact care for individuals. Person-centered care results in shared meaning with the healthcare team, recipient of care, and the healthcare system, thus creating humanization of wellness and healing from birth to death.