By giving a brief overview of the metaconcepts in nursing, with a focus on environment, we sketch a theoretical framework for an emancipatory perspective in nursing care practice. To meet the requirements of equality in care and treatment, we have in our theoretical framework added a critical lifeworld perspective to the antioppressive practice, to meet requirements of equity in health care encounter. The proposed model of emancipatory nursing goes from overall ideological structures to ontological aspects of the everyday world. Based on the model, nurses could identify what kind of theoretical critical knowledge and thinking they require to conduct equal care and encounter the person behind the patient role.