Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Health Professionals

Explore the overview of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from a clinical approach and understand its implications.

The Humanistic Perspective

The humanistic perspective became prominent in the mid-20th century due to psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism. Individuals who emphasize human potential and a person’s ability to change are known as humanism. At the same time, humanism rejects the idea of biological determinism, which is defined as the idea that most human characteristics, both physical and mental, are determined at conception. The humanistic perspective focuses on how people develop and emphasizes an individual’s inherent drive toward self-actualization and creativity. Additionally, it is fundamental to the humanistic perspective as it is the notion that development is viewed as a continuous process while being impacted more by a person’s environmental and social circumstances than genetics or nature-related factors. Many well-known humanistic theorists like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow studied how the human perspective is implemented in a clinical approach. This ensures a more positive outlook to improve patient and nurse practitioners’ outcomes while allowing a better understanding of pain, discomfort, and emotions. (Boston-Leary et al., 2024)

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Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

American humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) studied and focused on the growth potential of healthy individuals. He believed that people strive to become self-actualized and start to accept themselves and others as they are. He began to notice that many people started to lack inhibition while being able to enjoy themselves and live relatively free of guilt.

 

To that point, many people begin to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to motivate behavior, as it is a psychological theory that describes a pattern through which human motivations generally move to occur at the next level by allowing the individual to be completely satisfied with the previous level. At its main core for motivation in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there are multiple independent fundamental systems; some motives are formed and have priority over others. (Kenrick et al., 2010) Maslow’s theories have also greatly contributed to our understanding of the self. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has five stages that allow potential growth to individuals: physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. These five stages represent the growth of an individual towards fulfillment of the highest needs.

 

Physiological Needs

According to Maslow, physiological needs are the main physical requirements for human survival, including maintaining body equilibrium, food, water, sleep, shelter, and sex. To be satisfied, many people have to have physiological needs like breathing, eating, drinking, or sleeping, which allows them to be motivated by the next level of needs. In a healthcare setting, many nurses shift from physiological needs and safety as they demonstrate stability and endurance and adapt to the shifting requirements of the healthcare system. (Hayre-Kwan et al., 2021)

 

Safety

Once a person’s physiological needs are met and relatively satisfied, the second stage, known as safety, begins to take precedence and becomes a dominant behavior. This can come from earning money, building up resources, and seeking shelter that protects people from danger. Once that person is satisfied and feels safe, they have the time to think about what they want. However, when physical safety is absent due to environmental factors like war, natural disasters, family violence, childhood abuse, or institutional racism, it can cause many people to experience or re-experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or transgenerational trauma, hence why safety needs have to include the need for personal, emotional, financial and physical security.

 

Economic safety is another example of environmental factors affecting safety, possibly due to a financial crisis and a lack of work opportunities. When economic safety is absent, it needs to manifest itself in ways such as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting people from unilateral authority, saving accounts, insurance policies, etc. This level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tends to predominate in children since they generally need to feel safe.

 

Love & Belonging

The third stage in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is love and belonging. Love and belonging include the need for friendship, intimacy, and belonging. Many people desire to be close to family and friends while belonging to a society or joining a club. Professionals must incorporate love and belonging to individuals dealing with pain-like symptoms in a healthcare setting to maintain a healthy nurse-patient relationship. This will ensure that the individual’s needs and wants are heard while providing them with a positive mentality to alleviate their pain. (Xu et al., 2021) The need for love and belonging is especially strong in childhood and can override the safety need. This is witnessed in children who cling to abusive parents as a negative issue. Deficiencies within this level of Maslow’s hierarchy, like hospitalization, neglect, shunning, or ostracism, can adversely affect the person’s ability to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships. Moreover, these negative experiences can significantly impact a person’s development.

 

Esteem

Esteem is the fourth stage of Maslow’s hierarchy, which is the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others. At this stage, many people look for esteem, self-confidence, and respect from peers, as everyone wants to be someone. An example would be if a person has money, they would buy a fancy watch, or if a person with a brain can write, think, or even work a lot. This is due to the motivation to perform and compete at its highest level. At the same time, many people will often engage in a profession or hobby as esteem or status needs are ego needs. Many people will be concerned with getting recognition, status, importance, and respect from others, as most humans need to feel respected. This, in turn, includes the need to have self-esteem and self-respect. However, when there is a lack of affirmative feedback, the individual’s self-esteem can affect their personal accomplishments of improving. Thus addressing the underlying issues that are causing them pain and discomfort. (Carroll et al., 2025)

 

Self-Actualization

The final level of Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization. For people to achieve the highest level in their lives, they need to reach the lower levels of needs, which include being able to eat, sleep, feel safe, belong to a group, and still feel special. When we reach the highest level, we can accept facts for what they are, relax, and be creative. While the pressure on specific needs is no longer here, there is still a chance that any of the lower levels’ needs can remain low. Self-actualization is the desire to accomplish things that one can do to become the most that one can be. According to humanistic theory, self-actualization is a state of self-fulfillment in which people can achieve their highest potential uniquely. Many individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. Many examples can include:

• A person who has a strong desire to become an ideal parent
• A person who has a desire to be expressed athletically
• A person who utilized their abilities and talents to express themselves through art.

 

Questions of the Hierarchal Status

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a key foundation for understanding how drive and motivation correlate when discussing human behavior. Each need is highlighted in the levels that require motivation as one progresses through the hierarchy. While looking at the hierarchical structure, many important questions start to arise.

 

First, there is the question of the direction of progress as an individual moves within and across levels. Originally, Maslow emphasized how lower-level needs must be met before addressing higher-level needs. From this initial concept arose an awareness of the variability across individuals regarding their perception and importance of each basic need. An example would be females having reproductive needs that may be prioritized but not for others. Maslow claims that meeting each need is not a criterion for achieving higher-level needs. When an individual has more-or-less achieved their basic lower-level needs, the next level of needs becomes the focus. Before some lower-level needs are fully met, an individual can meet higher-level needs, such as self-actualization.

 

A second and related question is whether an individual moves in a unidirectional manner from the bottom to the top of the pyramid. Since multiple factors can influence an individual’s needs at a certain point in life, it is possible for multidirectional movement across the stages. An employee thinking about starting a family, the third stage of Maslow’s hierarchy, might need to focus on the second stage of Maslow’s hierarchy, safety, in light of being laid off. While this employee had established a sense of safety and security, unemployment would factor into meeting needs with the second and third stages of Maslow’s hierarchy. This fluctuation is important because human life and development are dynamic, not static, and the hierarchy needs to make room for this fluctuation. The crux of Maslow’s theory states that the basic needs must be met before becoming motivated to achieve any higher-level needs, as the goal is self-actualization. This motivates the individual to assess each need to be satisfied to reach self-actualization with a positive correlation. (Taormina & Gao, 2013) When people start to make small changes in their routine while incorporating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they will notice their bodies and mentality improving while living healthier lives.

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Injury Medical Chiropractic & Functional Medicine Clinic

We associate with certified medical providers who implement Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for our patients in a clinical approach to their pain and discomfort. While asking important questions to our associated medical providers, we advise patients to integrate small changes into their daily routine and provide them with a place to have a positive and safe experience. Dr. Alex Jimenez, D.C., envisions this information as an academic service. Disclaimer.

 

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References

Boston-Leary, K., Alexander, G. R., & Davis, S. (2024). Leveraging Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to Build Nursing’s More Inclusive Future. Nurs Adm Q, 48(1), 55-64. doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000613

Carroll, A., Collins, C., & McKenzie, J. (2025). Physician wellbeing in a national rehabilitation hospital, a qualitative study utilizing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a framework for analysis. BMC Health Serv Res, 25(1), 175. doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-12310-x

Hayre-Kwan, S., Quinn, B., Chu, T., Orr, P., & Snoke, J. (2021). Nursing and Maslow’s Hierarchy: A Health Care Pyramid Approach to Safety and Security During a Global Pandemic. Nurse Lead, 19(6), 590-595. doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2021.08.013

Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations. Perspect Psychol Sci, 5(3), 292-314. doi.org/10.1177/1745691610369469

Taormina, R. J., & Gao, J. H. (2013). Maslow and the motivation hierarchy: measuring satisfaction of the needs. Am J Psychol, 126(2), 155-177. doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.2.0155

Xu, J. X., Wu, L. X., Jiang, W., & Fan, G. H. (2021). Effect of nursing intervention based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in patients with coronary heart disease interventional surgery. World J Clin Cases, 9(33), 10189-10197. doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v9.i33.10189

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