©2017 South

University

Nursing Theory NSG 6006

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NSG 6006 Pre-Specialty

Evaluation

Week 3: Nursing Theory

© 2017 South University

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Nursing Theory NSG

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NSG 6006 Pre-Specialty

Evaluation

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Theory

The theory era began with a strong emphasis on knowledge development. Although

in the previous two decades proponents of nursing theory and nursing theorists had

begun to publish their works, it is noteworthy that they denied being theorists when

they were introduced as such at the 1978 Nurse Educator Conference in New York

with the Nursing Theory theme. There was understanding among those attending the

conference that the presenters were theorists, and by the second day, the audience

responded to their denials with laughter. This seems strange today, but this was the

first time most of the theorists even met each other. Their works had grown out of

content organization in nursing education courses, nursing practice administration in

large agencies, and structures for the thought and action of practice. It was clear that

their works were nursing theoretical structures even before they recognized them as

such. The theory era, coupled with the research and graduate education eras, led to

understanding of the scientific process beyond production of a scientific product

Theory forms the foundation of knowledge. Nursing theories form the foundation of

nursing practice, research, and education. Throughout your professional life, you will

be applying theory and the knowledge derived from theory in your practice

environment regardless of the setting. An understanding of the nature of nursing

knowledge from a historical perspective will help you relate better to where nursing

theory development is today.

The new millennium has witnessed a rapid change in the global healthcare arena.

This profession is continually evolving to face the monumental changes that have

emerged. In the past, nursing theories were taught strictly from an academic point of

view. Those in practice saw little connection or integration of theory and practice.

However, the contemporary move toward evidence-based practice has seen nursing

professionals applying theory to describe, predict, and prescribe nursing practice.

Relevance to Present and Future

Theories are a reflection of the past, present, and future of nursing.

Understanding the relevance of theories will enhance the relationship of concept

with practice. This will help you comprehend the complex phenomena and

interconnectedness between theory and practice and build a new way of

thinking, understanding, working, and living.

Relevance to Research

Research on theories help in the systematic investigation of the domain of knowledge.

Research acts as a source of knowledge development. Research studies conducted on

nursing theories help highlight the interlinking cyclical connection between theory and

practice. Learners get an idea about the interconnectedness between real world

clinical issues, theory, and actual research.

Early knowledge consisted of loosely connected clusters of concepts. Later

knowledge developed interrelatedstatements connecting the concepts.

Advanced theory provided a knowledge base for intervention strategies that

clusters of concepts could not.

 Identification of theory is important to understand the characteristics of

theory structures. A complete theory of nursing identifies the three elements

of context, content, and process; some theorists articulate each element

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better than others.

 Context is the environment in which nursing acts occur; the context of a

theory describes the nature of the world of nursing and may describe the

nature of the patient’s world.

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Nursing Theory NSG

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 Content includes the subject matter of a theory; this comprises the stable

components that are acted on or that do the acting

 Process implies the action part of the theory, the intervention elements.

 In addition to these elements, all theories should be examined for certain

common factors: Theories should be based on concepts and propositions

 Theories should be specific to the nursing context Theories can be applied

to many situations Theories should be relevant to potential users

 Theories should be easy to define it in operational terms

Theories should correspond with empirical findings Theories should demonstrate

internal consistency. Florence Nightingale made the first attempts at theory-based

nursing during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She organized a group of

women to deliver care under her supervision and that of war surgeons. She

established the need for hygiene, with environmental change as the means to

enhance healing. For her, the nursing domain was the patient and the environment in

which care was offered. Her goals were to expose the unhealthy conditions of

soldiers, to gain support for the need for nurses, and to achieve formal education for

nurses. She was the first to use data collection and analysis to prove efficacy of

nursing actions.

Theory is defined as "an organized, coherent, and systematic articulation of a set of

statements related to significant questions in a discipline that are communicated in a

meaningful whole; a symbolic depiction of aspects of reality that are discovered or

invented for describing, explaining, predicting, or prescribing responses, events,

situations, conditions, or relationships" (Meleis, 1997, pp. 8,12)1. Thus, a theory is a

coherent set of propositions and statements that describe (factor-isolating), explain

(factor-relating), and predict (situation- relating) phenomena as well as prescribe

(situation-producing) actions toward goals. (Dickoff et al., 1968)

Theory development requires perceiving phenomena that are peculiar to nursing and

proposing meaningful explanation for these perceptions. The nursing profession

identifies four levels of theory— metatheory, grand theory, middle range theory, and

practice theory. The theories are classified based on their levels of abstraction or

complexity.

A complete structure includes a conceptual model, derived theories, and

correlated empirical research methods. Each conceptual model and theory is

comprised of concepts and propositions. The complete structure forms a hierarchy

that is based on levels of abstraction.

 Most abstract: the conceptual model that provides the context or frame of

reference for theory- generating and theory-testing research

 Intermediate level: the theory that is generated or tested

 Most concrete: the empirical research methods used to collect and analyze the

data

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