Nursing theories are a set of predictive models that support nursing practice today. These theories are essential to nursing practice, scientific research and education because they help in determining what is known and any additional skills and knowledge that is needed.
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The theory has always been an essential part of being a nurse; however, it’s becoming even more imperative than ever before because we live in such a fast-growing society. We will discuss why theory is important in nursing while providing you with some insight into which nursing theories exist. What Is the Theory, and Why Do Nurses Need It?
Though nursing theory is often developed by nurses, it’s influenced by physicians, nursing theorists, and other health care professionals. Nurses commonly use multiple separate theories, as strictly keeping to one theory isn’t always beneficial.
The nursing theory focuses on four main concepts: the person, the environment, health, and nursing. These four are often interrelated and collectively called a metaparadigm for nursing.
A grand theory, and there are many, is a synthesis of scholarly research, professional experience, and insights from theoretical pioneers (such as Florence Nightingale).” One well-known grand nursing theory was formulated by Dorothea Orem in the 1950s, which centers around the individual’s ability to practice self-care.
Nursing theory helps distinguish nursing as a separate discipline from medicine and related sciences, and assists nurses in understanding their patients and their needs. The theory provides different templates to help nurses provide care that respects patients and improves outcomes.
The goal of nursing theory is to support excellence in practice. Nursing as a profession becomes stronger when nursing knowledge is built on sound theory. Theory is a useful tool for reasoning, critical thinking, and decision making.
A theoretical perspective allows the nurse to plan and implement care purposefully and proactively. When nurses practice purposefully and systematically, they are more efficient, have better control over the outcomes of their care, and are better able to communicate with others.
Theories have become necessary for effective decision making and implementation because they provide a basis for collecting reliable and valid data. Nursing theory is key in the practice of nurses and advanced practice nurses because it serves as a guide to assessment, intervention, and evaluation of care.
organized set of related ideas and concepts that helps us find meaning in our experiences(such as nursing), organize our thinking around an idea(such as caring), and develop new ideas and insights into the work we do.
Which is a primary reason for incorporating theory into education? Nursing theory is taught as a guide to nursing practice and to teach students care within the unique perspective of nursing.
Professionals develop nursing theories to inform nursing practice, advance care strategies, and improve patient outcomes for a better quality of life. Nurses can apply them to all six steps of the nursing process: assessment, diagnosis, outcome, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Theory can also be used to guide the research process by generating and testing phenomena of interest. The primary purpose of theory in the profession of nursing is to improve practice by positively influence the health and quality of life of patients. The relationship between theory and practice is reciprocal.
Theories are academic models or frameworks that are developed to help explain or predict certain phenomena. They are generally discipline specific and often build upon or even contradict one another. Practice describes the application of knowledge or skills in a given situation.
Nursing theories also allow nurses to positively influence the health and well being of their patients beyond taking care of them at the bedside. Nursing theory-guided practice helps improve the quality of care delivered and helps continue to move the nursing profession forward into the 21st century.
Nurses help people and their families cope with illness, deal with it, and if necessary live with it, so that other parts of their lives can continue. Nurses do more than care for individuals. They have always have been at the forefront of change in health care and public health.
The Cultural Care Theory, created by Madeleine Leininger, states that nursing care needs to align closely with the personal beliefs of the patient. In other words, the individual's religious beliefs, cultural practices, and values should play an important role in the nursing interventions the patient receives.
In the nineteenth century, Florence Nightingale, the author of the first modern nursing theory, observed nursing education and put these theories into practice.
From science to art, nursing incorporates theory from all fields to offer quality care for patients. Theories are important because they allow nurses to understand how different aspects of health and illness affect each other.
Nurses of any position or specialty need to know the theories behind their practice.
The primary goal of nursing theory is to influence health and quality positively. Nursing theories are used to help nurses think critically about questions that they have related to nursing.
Nursing theory is also important because it can be viewed as guiding how we think about nursing. Nursing theory helps distinguish nursing as a separate discipline from medicine and related sciences, and assists nurses in understanding their patients and their needs. The theory provides different templates to help nurses provide care that respects patients and improves outcomes. Through understanding the intersection of nursing, patients, health, and the environment, these theories aim to simplify the complicated, ever-evolving relationship that nurses have with their profession.
As Marlaine Smith and Marilyn Parker wrote in Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice, “Nursing theories … regardless of complexity or abstraction, reflect phenomena central to the discipline and should be used by nurses to frame their thinking, action, and being in the world. As guides, nursing theories are practical in nature and facilitate communication with those we serve, as well as with colleagues, students, and others practicing in health-related services.”
Advanced nursing degree programs, such as a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), offer a robust curriculum that integrates theory and evidence-based practice to prepare the next generation of nursing professionals.
Another grand theory, the Roy Adaptation Model, was put forth by Callista Roy in 1976, and states that the purpose of nursing is essentially to increase life expectancy. In an online article for NurseLabs, author Angelo Gonzalez writes that in Roy’s theory, “nurses are facilitators of adaptation. They assess the patient’s behaviors for adaptation, promote positive adaptation by enhancing environment interactions and helping patients react positively to stimuli. Nurses eliminate ineffective coping mechanisms and eventually lead to better outcomes. Adaptation is the ‘process and outcome whereby thinking and feeling persons as individuals or in groups use conscious awareness and choice to create human and environmental integration.’”
A grand theory, and there are many, is a synthesis of scholarly research, professional experience, and insights from theoretical pioneers (such as Florence Nightingale).”
One well-known grand nursing theory was formulated by Dorothea Orem in the 1950s, which centers around the individual’s ability to practice self-care. Orem’s theory is divided into self-care, self-care deficit, and nursing systems.
Virginia Henderson , often called the “first lady of nursing,” developed a grand theory of nursing in the early 20th century. It defined the role of nurses in this way, according to the website Nursing Theory: “The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will, or knowledge.”