Compare And Contrast Nursing Theorist And Their Theory

This portfolio shows the educational journey through the BSN program at Western Governors University(WGU). The curriculum at WGU was very challenging, nonetheless it prepared me to become a safe and effective nurse. The BSN curriculum provided avenues to keep me up to date with safe practices and learn how to master therapeutic communication. WGU also helped me sharpen my critical thinking skills in order to make decisions quickly and provide safe and effective care to patients. As the result of my training, I am ready to embark in the field of nursing and do my best to make a difference in my patients lives.

My personal philosophy of nursing seeks to incorporate the art of conveying nursing science holistically with care and human dignity. The four nursing metaparadigm concepts are described in relation to nursing as a science and an art and provide the base upon which my view of nursing and my personal philosophy are derived. As a nursing student at UIC, I am well aware of the fact that the best outcome for any patient may not be improvement in health, but rather, a dignified death during the end of life care. End of life care includes a significant quality in care and human dignity.

In the following paragraphs, the grand theory of Jean Watson will be explored for its usefulness in practice. We will explore how the theory is congruent with current nursing standards and nursing interventions. Next, we will study if her theory has been tested empirically, if it is supported by research and if it is accurate. We will explore if there is evidence that her theory has been used by nursing educators, researchers, and nursing administrators. Then we will study how her theory is relevant socially and cross-culturally. Finally, we will explore if her theory contributes to the discipline of nursing and a summary will be presented of this review.

Nursing has not always been my first choice as a career. I started college not knowing what I wanted to be. For the first two semesters of my college life, my major was undecided. I just couldn’t decide which career would be the best option for me. I wanted to do something that I do often or have been doing throughout my life time. I wanted a career that encouraged the beliefs and values that I highly followed. During the summer of 2013, I took my sibling with major disabilities to the Emergency room. The first person that came running to help us was a nurse. The nurse recognized immediately what was wrong and did the best she could to help my sister breath. Right there is when I

Differences between the Basic and Advanced Practice Nursing in Difference Correctional Facilities and Those outside Correctional Facilities

It takes time and experience to become an expert nurse. According to Patricia Benner, there are five stages that a nurse must go through to be considered an expert nurse. During a nurse’s first year in the workforce, she is considered a novice nurse (1984). At 1-2 years, she is known as an advanced beginner. During this stage, the new nurse begins to see recurring aspects of health care and pieces different parts together, but she may have difficulty still prioritizing what is most critical. A competent nurse is considered to be in the workforce for 2-3 years. An expert nurse is one that has been in their

The phrase "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse" supports the belief that all nurses are educated and competent enough to provide care to a diverse patient population. Despite the amount of formal education an individual has, he or she would have to demonstrate the ability to pass the

As nurses, we continue to gain knowledge and skills within our area of practice. We use theories to help us build concepts or ideas in gathering information, explaining relationships and demonstrating experiences of development. Theories vary in their level of abstraction and scope. Nursing theories are beneficial in helping us to understand, organize our thoughts and influence practice and research. Nursing theory has three distinct types to describe the level of abstraction: Grand, Middle-Range, and Situation-Specific (Meleis, 2012, pg. 33). For example, Grand theory is relatively abstract and broad in scope. It tends to focus on the nature or goal of nursing. The situation-specific theory is a narrow range of concept that is specific to

The nursing theory chosen is that of need theory by Virginia Henderson. Henderson has contributed a lot in nursing throughout her journey as a nurse. She intended to define the unique focus of nursing practice, but at the end, it ends up being one the nursing theories that are being used in every clinical setting. Her contribution has helped shaped the way nurses care for their patients and the components she developed help serves as guidelines which nurses used to care for patients.

Nursing knowledge developed from the period of Florence Nightingale until now through the development of nursing theories, philosophies and knowledge base practices. Nursing has a distinctive knowledge base and therefore it can be considered as a profession. As a profession nursing has a social responsibility to provide a knowledge base practice.,McCurry,Revell and roy((2009) Each discipline is having its own body of knowledge, Smith and McCarthy(2010).The term ontology has been used by Watson, who refers to ontology as the creative work in nursing that reflects caring and healing .Caring is the foundation of Ontological nursing. Watson (1999).

Florence Nightingale, who lived from years 1820 -1910, was one of the pioneering theorists in the nursing history. She was the first to provide a theory to improve and develop health and transform nursing from a domestic service to a permanent profession. Since a young age, she cared for the poor and ill people and considered nursing and serving humans as a Christian duty (Selanders, 2012). Her contribution in providing nursing care for British soldiers fighting the Crimean War and negotiating with the male worlds of both the military and medicine with her administrative skills was significant (Woodham-Smith, 1983). Nightingale founded the Nightingale Nursing School in London in 1860 and created the foundation theory for practice and education of the nursing world. She played an important role in promoting nursing as an essential and educational element for public health through her inspiring letters and publications.

The highest mean in table 2e., is (3.14) for “Working with nurses who are clinically competent”. This finding is associated to more tenured ED staff, which was evident on the profile of the respondents. According to ED staff nurses, these tenured nurses displayed strong capabilities, skills, and professionalism to perform all necessary tasks. These attributes of senior nurses reflect a competent nurse who used knowledge, skills, judgment, attitudes, values, and beliefs to perform well in a given role or situation (ANA, 2009). More so, ED is a specialized area that required highly trained ED staff nurses. That is why ED staff nurses were trained in providing basic life support (BLS) and in advance cardiac life support (ACLS).

The nursing process is a series of organized steps designed for nurses to provide excellent care. Learn the five phases, including assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating.

Paterson and Zderad created the metatheory, Humanistic Nursing Theory (HNT) (Wu & Volker, 2011). Metatheories have a more complex language and can be harder to understand (Higgins &Moore, 2012). It is a very abstract theory making it difficult to apply to specific situations in nursing. Because of its abstract nature the HNT was formulated so that middle range and micro range theories can be derived from the HNT. Middle range and micro range theories are less abstract and easier to understand. Wu and Volker state that “the nurse patient relationship is characterized by interactions designed to promote well-being and existential growth in the context of the lived world” (2011, p 472).

Dorothea Orem was an extravagant nursing theorist whose theories were first published in 1971 (Dorothea Orem 's Self-Care Theory, 2014). Orem established several fascinating theories of nursing which are still are current in today’s nursing. Orem proposed three nursing theories that are identified as: self-care theory, theory of Self-care deficit and theory of nursing system (Dorothea Orem 's Self-Care Theory, 2014). Orem’s nursing theories are defined as a grand theory (Nursing Theories: An Overview, 2014). Grand theory is defined as an abstract outline under which the key conceptions and values of the discipline can be acknowledged (Nursing Theories: An Overview, 2014). Orem’s theories mainly proposed that