title: Health: A Developing Concept in Nursing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the level of maturity of the concept of health in the nursing discipline.
  
  
  METHODS
  The four principles of Morse and colleagues were used to evaluate the level of maturity of the health concept-epistemological, logical, pragmatical, and linguistical.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This evaluation suggests that the concept of health in nursing is immature, defined inconsistently, and with different instruments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health is a central concept for nursing. Additional concept development and clarification are needed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For the concept of health to be conceptualized, it is important that nurses have consensus regarding the definition of health. The nursing discipline should define health in a manner that is consistent with its philosophical presuppositions. Further, it should be measurable, empirically based, and capture the outcomes that are sensitive to the nursing interventions.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
authors.forename: Eman Tariq
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Alslman
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
authors.forename: Muayyad M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
authors.forename: Manar Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bani Hani
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
authors.forename: Huda Mohammad
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Atiyeh
mesh_terms: D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D009736:Nursing Process
keywords: Concept analysis; health; health measurement; health status; nursing