Nursing Theory: The Nightingale’s Theories and Practices

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Nursing theories are the building blocks of education and practice in everyday patient healthcare. It is the basic concepts that explain why nurses do and provides explanations to their actions. Although many nursing theories do not ring a bell while a nurse is working, they are vital when one is looking to answer why a task is being done in a certain way. The nursing theories that are implemented today all have their roots embedded throughout history. Nursing theories came about as an explanation, reasoning or through research and practice as a way to explain and come up for procedures of healthcare. The best way to look at nursing theories is like the foundational block. Nursing theories are important set the tone of how a nurse will practice. A nurse will use intuition, practice, past expertise and events, and couple with learned theories to work every day in order to give the best patient care. it is all the more important to appreciate what first advanced nursing beyond mechanisms of practice to becoming a knowledge-based force in healthcare: That force is nursing theory and the theoretical thinking and research that generate theory. The complexity and depth of nursing are reflected in its structure of knowledge, which includes discipline-specific components such as philosophies, theories, and research and practice methodologies”( Reed, 2006). Patient care is a wide topic, but a key role in a patient’s care is the patient themselves, an educated patient is vital to their well being and higher level of care. “Henderson had the pioneering view that nursing stands separately from medicine and that nursing consists of more than simply following physicians’ orders” (Nicely, & DeLario, 2011). Virginia Henderson’s nursing theor... ... middle of paper ... ... in Transplantation, 21(1), 72-77. Wagner, D., & Bear, M. (2009). Patient satisfaction with nursing care: A concept analysis within a nursing framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(3), 692-701. Reed PG, The force of nursing theory guided- practice. Nurs Sci Q. 2006 Jul;19(3):225    Works Cited Henderson, V. A. (1961). Basic Principles of Nursing Care. London: International Council of Nurses. Nicely, B., & DeLario, G. T. (2011). Virginia Henderson’s principles and practice of nursing applied to organ donation after brain death. Progress in Transplantation, 21(1), 72-77. Wagner, D., & Bear, M. (2009). Patient satisfaction with nursing care: A concept analysis within a nursing framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(3), 692-701. Reed PG, The force of nursing theory guided- practice. Nurs Sci Q. 2006 Jul;19(3):225   

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