The concept of wellness has no single, universal acceptable definition. The situation gives room to developing and refining wellness both as a concept and an experience. This paper aimed to substantiate the concepts surrounding wellness within an illness experience. Beth Rodger's evolutionary method of concept analysis provided the organizing framework for this paper. The data source was a search of literature published from 2010-2016 on CINAHL, Medline, EBSCO, and Google scholar database. Trailing process is organized with particular focus on antecedents, attributes, and consequences.

The analysis found four attributes of wellness within illness namely: normalizing, independence, empowerment, and finding meaning strengthened by antecedents such as strong social support, motivation, constructive coping strategies, and cognitive reframing. Subsequently these may lead to adaptation to illness, being well, and living to illness. Looking at wellness and illness in dichotomy may lead to rote deftness thus expansion of the panorama of wellness within an illness experience may lead to more depth on the scientific understanding and varied application. Increased conceptual understanding and knowledge development on wellness will enable nurses in facilitating patient's adaptation during illness.