Conceptual Model In Nursing

Today, nursing profession had advanced to the highest degree, shifting from dependence on total medical direction in delivering basic care, into an independent practice by using nursing theories, models and nursing interventions. Nursing practice must be based on nursing theories and this is what makes nursing as a profession. Nursing theories gives a direction and acts as a guide for structured professional nursing practice, education and research. Effective and efficient nursing care is based on prompt assessment, intervention and evaluation, and nursing theories is used as a guide for nurses to deliver high quality of care. In order to have an effective decision making and implementation, nursing theories would be able to provide a rational

The way of thinking about an issue or ways of representing how complex things work the way that they do is expressed by conceptual model. Different variables and outcomes will be emphasized by different framework, however they are interrelated. A number of theories can be used to assist in understanding a particular issue in a certain setting or context to modulate a model and they may be not as specified as theory. Conceptual framework is a collection of associated concepts which provides an overall view to center view. A conceptual model is a diagram of a conceptual framework.

Variables:

Variables are known as the working form of constructs. They define how a construct is to be measured in a specific circumstance. When identifying what needs to be assessed during evaluation of a theory, variables match to constructs.

Middle range theory:

Middle range theory is a theory that is testable which contains limited number of variables as well as limited in scope. However, generally it is more than sufficient to be used in variety of clinical research

Meleis (1996) had mentioned that nursing theories is a system that integrates holistic and behavioral that have and interaction on human being, environment and nursing interventions. On the other hand, Parse (1987) stated that nursing theoretical models is a terms of whole and synchronizing paradigms. There are many nursing theories such as on environment, interpersonal, needs, nursing process, self care, comfort and many more (Alligood & Tomey 2002). Clearly, various nursing theories have been developed with various conceptual and philosophical orientations, which frequently lay fundamentals for the ways theorists view humans, human life, human relations, or practice. In this paper my write up is on Kolcaba’s Comfort theory.

In hospital setting providing comfort is a requirement in patients care. Being a nurse for twenty seven years, I only knew the word ‘comfort care’ was used for terminally ill patients as a last result of their life. Comfort care was not used as a standard hospital protocols or preventative to improve patient’s health outcomes. To my surprised Dr Katherine Kolcaba is one of the first nurse researcher that had develop theory of comfort to enhance and improve patients’ outcomes and satisfaction as well as improving the institutional