Nursing Theory

Week 4: Nursing Theory

Identify your specialty area of professional practice. Select a nursing theory from the list of specialty track specific theories provided in the lesson plan or one of your own findings. Address the following: (1) briefly identify concepts of the nursing metaparadigm (remember the selected theory may not include all four concepts); (2) provide an example how the theory could be used to improve or evaluate the quality of practice in your specific setting.

Metaparadigm define the professional discipline and provide a framework for the theory and knowledge development’ and it will include the concepts of person, environment, health and nursing. (Parker & Smith, 2015). My speciality is Family Nurse Practitioner and the track theory I will be addressing will be the McCormack and McCance’s Person-Centred Care Nursing (PCN) Framework

The concept of person centered is a term that focuses and ensures that the patient is the center of the care delivery. It is defined as “An approach to practice established through the formation and fostering of therapeutic relationships between all care providers, [older people] patients and others significant to them in their lives. It is underpinned by values of respect for persons, individual right to self determination, mutual respect and understanding. It is enabled by cultures of empowerment that foster continuous approaches to practice development.” (McCormack et al., 2010c, p.13).

The persona needs to be respected, that includes their beliefs and decisions, establish relationships, having sympathetic presence, providing holistic care. Environment include: an appropriate skill mix ,shared decision making systems, effective staff relationships, supportive organizational systems, power sharing, potential for innovation and risk taking, and the physical environment. Nursing; the nurse must be professional competent, be able to develop interpersonal skills, must be commitment to the job, have clarity of beliefs and values, and last but not least knowing self.

The theory can be used in general to improve the care towards the patient in any setting. Patients should be the heart of the setting, the ones that impulse nurses to keep going, and to get better outcomes. ‘”nurses and nursing staff provide and promote care that puts people at the centre, involves patients, service users, their families and their carers in decisions and helps them make informed choices about their treatment and care.” p35 (Manley et al. 2011)

References

Manley K, Watts C & Cunningham G (2011) Principles of Nursing Practice: development and implementation. Nursing Standard 25, 35–37

McCormack, B. & McCance, T. (2010). Person-centred Nursing: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

McCance, T., McCormack, B., Dewing, J., (May 31, 2011) “An Exploration of Person-Centredness in Practice” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 16, No. 2, Manuscript 1.

Parker, M. E., & Smith, M. C. (2015). Nursing theories and nursing practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis.

Class, which concept of the metaparadigm do you believe is most pertinent to nursing intervention?

There is not right or wrong answer to that; there are a variety of nursing theories and each of them represents different realities and address different aspects in nursing. (Meleis, 2007). Because of meteparadigm level, there are many concepts that are abstract of it; for that reason multiple theories have been derived from each conceptual model. “The person receiving the nursing, the environment within which the person exits, the health–illness continuum within which the person falls at the time of the interaction with the nurse, and finally nursing actions themselves” (Flaskerud and Holloran, 1980, cited in Fawcett, 1997, p.5). So, if there are no nurses, there are not nursing actions; if there are not patients, who will received the nursing care; health is relative to the persona, it can be according to the patients perspective, whatever is healthy to one it can be unhealthy to the other one; and environment can be internal or external and even social factors that can impact the patient. Nola Pender stated that “ The role of the nurse includes raising consciousness related to health-promoting behaviors, promoting self-efficacy, enhancing the benefits of change, controlling the environment to support behavior change, and managing barriers to change” ( Masters, K. 2015, p. 216).

References

Flaskerud, J. H., & Holloran, E. J. (1980). Areas of agreement in nursing theory development. Advances in Nursing Science, 3(1), 1–7

Masters, K. (2015). Nursing theories: A framework for professional practice (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Meleis, A. I. (2007). Theoretical nursing: Development & progress (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott

Dear Tia, thank you for sharing this theory, I didn’t know about it. I have a huge respect to those that work at hospice, usually we want to see the smile, the beginning of life, but no the end of it, brings tears and sadness. I remember when my aunt was in hospice, I was really impressed by those nurses that in her daily habits, used to come with a smile to bring comfort to their patients, without knowing if their patients will make it to the next day. Holistic comfort is defined as the immediate experience of being strengthened through having the needs for relief, ease, and transcendence met in four contexts of experience (physical, psychospiritual, social, and environmental). (Kolcaba, K., 1995). And you Tia, did a great job described them. Comfort was the nurse’s first consideration. A good nurse made patients comfortable. And well know it from Nightingale.

References

Kolcaba, K. (1995). The art of comfort care [Electronic version]. Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 27(4), 287-289.