Quality of life: conceptual and measurement issues

Nursing as a human science is concerned with the experiences of human beings in relation to health and illness matters. Human experiences are shaped by history, relationships, politics, social structures, gender and culture. Nurses are concerned with how these perspectives shape the actions and reactions of human beings. Nursing seeks to maximize clients' strengths, assets and potential, and to contribute to their quality of life. The concept of quality of life will be discussed in this paper. The first section will present a historical perspective of the concept. The second part synthesizes conceptual and measurement issues from a review of the literature. Finally, dimensions of this concept are defined and approaches to operationalize this concept are suggested.