A Conceptual Frame Of Reference For Nursing Jessie King Summary

Nursing theories have been a fundamental tool used to explain, guide and improve the practice of nursing. Theorists have contributed enormously to the growth of nursing as a profession. The four grand theorists I chose are Virginia Henderson, Peplau, Myra Levine and Jean Watson. These theorists have contributed tremendously in the field of nursing through their theories, and research. One thing the theorists have in common is that they are patient centered. They are all concerned on ways we can improve our responsibility to the patients, their families and the environment. They have different ideas but they are all aiming towards achieving the same goal, which is patient satisfaction and safety. Their differences are in their areas of

Theories or conceptual frameworks are a group of abstract ideas composed to explain some phenomena in nursing. It is difficult to reference any other theorist without giving recognition to Florence Nightingale, who introduced a paradigm shift the in the profession of nursing. In short, her Environmental Theory proposed that patients need a clean environment along with other simple actions to promote healing. Nightingale’s intellect was revolutionary; her framework and others alike are the foundation of the nursing profession and were developed to guide nursing practice today. Like Florence Nightingale; Imogene King, also a nursing theorist, helped shape standards in nursing education and practice. The

The activities include physical and occupational therapy, nutrition counseling, and case management ("Community Health Nursing," 2013).

Upon completing my undergraduate studies and beginning my nursing career, I was quick to follow a very empirical based philosophy of nursing. I often chose objective over subjective findings (McEwen, 2014, p. 11) to mark my next move in patient care. I was focused on lab values and ventilator settings, and less focused on my overall perception of the patient and his or her illness. As I have developed as a practicing nurse, my views, and consequently my actions, have shifted to represent a more interpretive view of nursing.

One nursing theory that has influenced my values and goals as a nurse is Jean Watsons Theory of human caring: Transpersonal Caring as the Fulcrum. Watson believed every person needs an interconnection with others and caring promotes this need. Through caring, a nurse can help the patient have balance and harmony of mind, body, and soul (Cherry & Jacob, 2014).

My definition of nursing is that of someone who genuinely cares about the well-being of others and helps heal those who are ill. Nursing is both an art and a science because in order to understand a patients diagnosis you must know the pathophysiology and basic lab values. The science part of nursing allows us to make judgments on medication orders doctors prescribe, procedures, and practices. Art is also apart of nursing because as nurses we must have intuition, compassion, and warmth towards our patients. It is what allows us to therapeutically communicate with our patients. A person can have the science part, but not master the art and therefore, that person may be uncompassionate towards a patient. I have see nurses in clinical settings

The metaparadigm of nursing consists of four parts comprised by Jacqueline Fawcett, in 1984, in her seminal work (Alligood, 2014). The metaparadigm she developed served to provide direction and guidance for the nursing framework already in use and became an organization tool for theories already in use (Alligood, 2014). The four parts being person, health, environment, and nursing. The four components of the metaparadigm concept of nursing is important to nursing theory because they are the key areas of focus of patient care, and the metaparadigm is designed to differentiate nursing from other specialties (Alligood, 2014). It is this use of theories that makes nursing a profession and guides professional nursing practice, research, and education (Alligood, 2014).

The Nursing Practice has come a very long way from what is use to be. Nursing was an unwanted profession, difficult and challenging in many ways. It was thanks to the dedication, great effort and sacrifice of many determined nurses that paved the way for contemporary nursing. Dating back to around middle of the first century Christians use to care and tend the sick, serving as one of the first nurses that history can account. When the small pox epidemic occurred in around 165 to 185 AD, these Christians served as nurses. Now, we can imagine how hard it would have been to be a nurse in those days. The conditions were deplorable, with barely any hygiene. There were harsh conditions to work as nurse, and viruses like the measles outbreak in

A worldview is not determined simply by a single factor, value, belief or view. It can be described as a collection of beliefs a person has about his or her life and the world around. This worldview can include aspects such as a consistent decision making process, an idea of what is right or wrong, and also who or what authority do I respect and follow. This view can modified constantly by factors including experiences that a person might face, a changing environment, and different values. There are many different types of worldviews and perspectives people have about the world that help to shape who

The nursing profession is one of many portrayed by the media. In its simplest form media is how information is shared and stored. Media covers a wide range of services, advertisements, brochures, pamphlets, TV shows, films, novels, and magazines, digital, electronic, it goes on and on. Media is more accessible these days; the internet and wireless technology makes it easy for many people to access information on a wide scale. As information is shared by the media the public creates an image. This image may be right or it can be wrong, it all depends on the media’s accuracy. Nurses have been depicted in many forms over the years. These depictions can influence the public’s opinion of the profession as well as the likelihood that the profession will be considered for future students. Nurses need to take a more active role in how the profession is portrayed by the media, they need to work together to portray the profession in its best light in order to recruit and retain nurses.

A nursing philosophy is the thoughts and beliefs about the job of a nurse based on one’s values. My values that have formed over the years have influenced me to purse a forever career as a nurse. I grew up in a small town Smithfield, Pennsylvania with my parents and younger brother. My community consisted of close relationships between the residents. Every one helped and cared for one another when needed. The practices of my community guided me to want to become a nurse. I want to continue to care for my community and give back to them by treating their illnesses and providing them with better health care. I am particularly interested in caring for pediatric patients. My goal is to try to provide every infant a chance to live their beautiful life created for them by God. While doing this, the primary focus of being a nurse will be to accommodate my patients and allow them to become a healthy person again.

Theory can be defined as the explanation of an event in which constructs and concepts are identified, relationships are proposed and predictions are made; it is a set of interpretative assumptions, principals or propositions that help explain or guide action. (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p521) Concepts occur in three steps; originating as a thought which are abstract or concrete in nature, progressing to a stage in which words and meaning are given to the concept, and lastly it is operationalized becoming a variable to be used tested during research. (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p50) According to McEwen, & Wills, (2014), a concept analysis identifies, clarifies and explores the meaning of concepts in order to promote understanding which aids in the development of conceptual frameworks, theories and research studies. (p55) Concepts relative to nursing include quality of life, blood pressure, hope, job satisfaction and pain.

The profession of nursing has matured from the time of Florence Nightingale. Nursing has gone from just treating dying soldiers on the battlefield to helping guide people through their entire lives from birth to death. The maturation of nursing has led to changes in nursing philosophy and allowed for practitioners of Nursing to meld these philosophies together to form their own philosophy. In this paper I will explain my philosophy of nursing and compare it to Virginia Henderson 's definition of nursing along with discussing some of the changes to Nurse philosophy I will also discuss some of the difficulties to being a patient advocate.

“The basic concept of the theory is that the nurse and patient communicate information, set goals together, and then take actions to achieve those goals. It describes an interpersonal relationship that allows a person to grow and develop in order to attain certain life goals. The factors that affect the attainment of goals are roles, stress, space, and time” (Nursing Theory, 2011).   King desired to advance the profession of nursing by developing a framework and theory that can be understood and used by all nurses, in any situation. She not only developed the theory but she always remained active in the profession and availed herself to nursing students around the clock to aid with their knowledge and application of the theory right up until her sudden death in 2007.

Theory is a cluster of concept or ideas that propose a view concerning a phenomenon to guide nursing practice (Chitty, 2005). The four concepts basic to nursing that are incorporated in this paper are nursing, person, health, and environment (Cherry & Jacob, 2005). The goal of this paper is to describe the core concept of nursing shared amongst Dorothea Orem and Virginia Henderson’s theories. The comparison and analysis of concept definitions between these two theories will also examined. Finally Henderson’s theory of concept statement, metaparadigm and her philosophy will be explored.