The Theories Of Patricia Benner And Philip Barker Regarding The Nurse

The Theories of Patricia Benner and Philip Barker Regarding the Nurse’s Role Concepts of patient, health, environment, and nursing, which collectively comprise the metaparadigm of the nursing profession, are consistent with all nursing theories and derive largely from the clinical field. While most theorists attempt to place the patient at the center of this framework, some stray from convention to challenge and expand the horizons of theory. Patricia Benner’s “Model of Skill Acquisition in Nursing” and Philip Barker’s “Tidal Model of Mental Health” are two such ideologies (Johnson, 2015, 178, 194). Whereas Benner focuses on competency development through experience in the field, Barker emphasizes the centrality of interpersonal relations

From observations of “chess players and airline pilots,” Benner extrapolated a theory that systematically describes five stages of nursing practice: first, novice; then, advanced beginner; competent; proficient; and, finally, expert (Johnson, 2015, 179; Benner, 2001, 21-35). Unlike most theorists, who centralize the patient, Benner’s Model of Skill Acquisition in Nursing emphasizes the importance of the nurse’s “skilled performance based upon experience” in the clinical setting (Benner, 2001, 36). In her theory, Benner thus describes each component of the nursing metaparadigm as a catalyst of the nurse’s

The theory describes the patient’s environment as “an ocean,” an image that implies the chaos and constant changes of mental dis-ease (Barker, 2005, 10). Amidst the characters, voices, or disillusions that otherwise occupy her psychological environment, the schizophrenic mother from the previous example might struggle to communicate with her nurse regarding her experiences and emotions. The nurse’s responsibility is to connect with patients suffering from mental dis-ease and to bridge this gap between their psychological ocean and the firm ground of a nurturing social