The resilience potential of each human being is an essential focus of nursing care and research. An honored nursing tradition is viewing each patient in the context of family and culture and recognizing how these factors affect a patient's health and ability to be resilient. We present a society-to-cells nursing theory that formalizes and extends this holistic view of patients by delineating factors that contribute to resilience potential based on the society, community, and family environment in which people live, as well as individual variables that influence psychological, physiological, and cellular coping abilities. We also summarize how this perspective is essential to optimize patient care and to inform future nursing research.