Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Nursing theories development
Nursing theories & nursing practice
Borrowed theories in nursing examples
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Nursing theories development
Nursing theories can be useful in helping nurses understand what we need to know and how to develop nursing in the future. There are many nursing theorists, one being Florence Nightingale who developed an environmental theory and Virginia Henderson who developed a need theory. Nursing theories are an accumulation of knowledge and facts gained from empirical investigations that try to describe and explain what nursing means.
Types of Nursing Theories
A theory is set of concepts, relationships, or assumptions that can guide nursing practice. Theories provide a structure for research to study situations and predict possible outcomes. Theories in nursing usually revolve around the concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing. There are four types of theories in nursing: grand theories, middle range theories, practice theories, and borrowed theories. Grand theories cover broad areas, are complex, and contained many unclear defined concepts. Grand theories are not usually useful in nursing practice. Middle range theories are more specific
Henderson’s theory was to help each person obtain independence so each person could contribute to their own health or recovery. Nurses serve the patient and care for them until they are able to care for themselves. Henderson’s nursing theory is based on fourteen components of human need. Some of those needs are physiological such as the need to eat and drink regular, breathe normal, eliminate body waste, move and maintain posture, sleep, keep body temperature within normal range, maintain clean and well-groomed body, and to dress appropriately. Spiritual component is to worship according to one’s faith. Also, one should voice their emotions, needs and fears to others. Social components are to work for accomplishment, play for recreation, learn and discover new ideas to foster normal health and
Nursing theories are based on four meta-paradigms which are commonly accepted in the nursing profession. These include nursing, person, health, and environment. These meta-paradigms are represented in Dr. Barnard’s Nursing PCI
These four concepts play a very important role throughout the care in every single patient we are in contact with. The concept of person is used to represent each individual patient, such as a man or a woman (Chitty & Black, 2014). In the nursing profession, we know that every person is different in their own way from many different factors such as, genetics and environment. As a nurse, we incorporate the different factors that make a person who they are today. According to Chitty & Black (2014), the concept of environment includes all the influences or factors that impact the individual. The environment plays an important role in either promoting or interfering with the patient’s health. The environment can consist of many different systems, such as family, cultural, social and community systems. All these different systems can play a role in the patient’s health. The third major concept of the metaparadigm is health. The concept of health varies from person to person and day-to-day with many different factors included (Chitty & Black, 2014). Health includes every part that makes a person whole, which includes being able to perform their everyday tasks in life effectively. The last concept of the metaparadigm is nursing. Nursing, being the final concept includes all the previous concepts of person, environment and health to create a holistic approach (Chitty & Black, 2014). The holistic approach promotes the well-being of the mind, body and spirit in our
Three types of middle range theories are descriptive, theories that are at the most basic level. These theories classify and may contain one or more concepts that may have many commonalities but do not attempt to explain the relationship to another. Descriptive theories are usually found with discrete observations in associations with individuals, groups, situations or events. An example of a middle range descriptive theory is, Peplau’s theory of interpersonal relations (Nursing Theories, 2013) In Peplau’s theory observations are titled and categorized by what is happening at that moment.
The nursing profession is considered both an art and a science. An example of the science of nursing is the theory and evidence based practice guidelines (EBP), which influence a nurses practice. The art of nursing is fluid of bringing science and patient care into nursing practice. Nurses in all levels of nursing educational programs should study nursing theory. According to Eun-Ok (2015) theory evaluation has declined and it is essential to developing nursing knowledge; which, leads to the development of nursing discipline. Nursing theory should be continually evolving as current health care trends evolve. The best way to accomplish this is through incorporating theory in academia and nursing
Theory’s responsibility is to provide nurses with standards that reinforce practice, as well as, for future nursing understanding and delivery. Basically, it provides nursing professionals with a tested way of thought on how to handle certain situations with proven results. The importance of nursing theories to nursing research is the knowledge offered gives nurses the foundation for communicating with others and best practice. Middle range theory according to McEwen & Wills (2011, p 35) are theories that have concrete concepts, that are specific, incorporate a measured number of concepts and characteristics of the real world and are tested for accuracy.
Nursing theories developed by scientists provide a framework for the process of establishing nursing as a profession with a specific body of knowledge including nursing language, and nurse is able to communicate inside in and outside of the profession. Theory supports and defines nursing practice and is used in practice situation to provide solution to the problem, provides guidelines in patient’s quality care, and helps to resolve nursing challenges. The benefits of middle-range theories found primarily in the research studies to address particular client population, in education, patient
Walker, L.O., & Avant, K.C. (2005). Strategies for theory construction in nursing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Walker, L. O., & Avant, K. C. (1995). Strategies for theory construction in nursing (3rd ed.). Norwalk, CT:
Walker, L.O., & Avant, K. (2005). Strategies for theory construction in nursing (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
To make good nursing decisions, nurses require an internal roadmap with knowledge of nursing theories. Nursing theories, models, and frameworks play a significant role in nursing, and they are created to focus on meeting the client’s needs for nursing care. According to McEwen and Wills (2014), conceptual models and theories could create mechanisms, guide nurses to communicate better, and provide a “systematic means of collecting data to describe, explain, and predict” about nursing and its practice (p. 25). Most of the theories have some common concepts; others may differ from one theory to other. This paper will evaluate two nursing theorists’ main theories include Sister Callista Roy’s
Nursing theories are actions care that a nurse provides to a patient to prevent a sickness, maintain and promote health. Many of the theorists contribute to a frame work or a blueprint of how nurses should provide care to patients. Many these theories are part of nursing care and most of them they go hand in hand. Nursing theory aims to describe, predict and explain the phenomenon of nursing (Chinn and Jacobs1978).Nursing is apprehensive with laws and principles governing the life processes and functioning of sick or well human beings. Nursing theories are beneficial in understanding the knowledge of nursing and its application (Smith and Liehr, 2008).
Nursing theory is, “the principle that underpin practice and help to generate further nursing knowledge” (Colley, 2003, p. 33). Nursing theory is important in nursing practice. The two theorists that are relevant to my nursing practice are Florence Nightingale and Hildegard Peplau. Florence Nightingale theory was about the patient having a clean and healing environment (Smith & Park, 2015, p. 51). The theory that Hildegard Peplau created was the importance of nurse-patient relationships (Smith & Park, 2015, p. 68). Both of these theories put the patient’s safety and care first. When I am at work I try to form a healthy and healing relationship with all my patients. I also make sure the environment that they are in is conducive to healing, it is hard to do that sometime working in the emergency room. Sometimes it is the little things that a nurse can do for a patient that will make all the difference. Taking both of these theories into
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.
Nursing theory can be applied to resolve nursing problems or issues, irrespective of the field of practice. A nursing theory benefits nurses and the patients that are in his or her charge. . Depending on the issue or problem that is needed to be solved determines what theory needs to be used. Nursing theory started with Florence Nightingale. She believed that a clean environment would promote better health. Virginia Henderson’s need theory emphasizes the need to ensure that the patient’s independence is being increased while in a health care facility. Ensuring that a patient can increase his or her independence allows for them to experience better outcomes upon discharge home. This is just two examples of nursing theories that were used
Walker, L. O. & Avant, K. C. (2011). Strategies for theory construction in nursing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.