NR 501 Week 1 Assignment: Importance of Theory in Nursing

NR 501 Week 1 Assignment: Importance of Theory in Nursing

NR 501 Week 1 Assignment: Importance of Theory in Nursing

           I do believe that theory in nursing is very important. Theory has been a part of nursing since the time Florence Nightingale began to change and develop procedures and explanations as to why nurses do what they do. A theory is defined as “a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena” (Theory [Def. 1], n.d.) Theory in nursing has been an ever-evolving topic. Expanding on reasoning for what we do, why we do stuff, and what affects we do have on our patients. Peplau was a theorist who developed the theory of interpersonal relationships. Explaining the interactions with the patient as it evolves into a more therapeutic relationship. The nurse and patient start off as strangers in the orientation phase and progress to the exploitation phase where the nurse and patient interact and finally the resolution phase when the care has been provided and the relationship at that time is terminated. This theory is a foundation of each interaction we have with our patients starting the moment that we get our assignment. Peplau “enabled the nurse to begin to move away from the disease model orientation to one where the psychological meaning of events, feelings and behaviors could be explored and incorporated into nursing interventions” (Adams, 2017).

            As nurses at the bedside we don’t often think too much about how we are using every day. As explained above the most common theory that has been developed and explained is the foundation to how we interact during the day. There are countless numbers of theories out there that we function based on, but don’t always know it. As identified by Sheri Jacobson, the best way to help nurses make the connection between theory and practice is by helping nurses make the connection using real example of practice (2017). An example she gave was of a nurse who is providing teaching for a patient on how to care for themselves when they leave (i.e. dressing changes, medication administration, exercises, etc.). Without theory in our practice we would have no foundation to go from to guide our practice and care methods.

References:

Adams, L. (2017). Peplau’s Contributions to Psychiatric and Nursing Knowledge. Retrieved December 27, 2017, from http://jmhan.org/index.php/JMHAN/article/view/3

Jacobson, S. (2017). Building Bridges from Theory to Practice: Nursing Theory for Clinical Nurses. Med-Surg Matters, 26(3), 1-15. Theory [Def. 1]. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved December 26,2017, from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theory

the suggestion by Jacobson was taken seriously by those who developed this course.  We will rely heavily on professional experiences to make the connections to practice.  

Nightingale intrigues me!  While her theory does not much resemble modern day nursing theories, she began the systematically of collecting and analyzing information and organizing the information into meaningful data that served to explain the role and practice of nursing…of the educated nurse.  She correlated her observation on patient healing to the patient conditions that were under the control of the nurse (Nightingale/1974/1859).

Allyson, did Jacobson cite a particular nursing theory to support the example given?  Class, do you know of a theory that would be supportive?

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Reference

Nightingale, F.  (1974) [First published 1859]. Notes on nursing: What it is and what it is not. Glasgow & London: Blackie & Son Ltd. ISBN (Links to an external site.) 0-216-89974-5 (Links to an external site.). 

Thank you for your response. Theory seemed like something I have never used, but doing research and reading about how it is a part of everything we do began to open my eyes to it. I have been making connections in my practice with theories I have read about. It really feels like an endless connection to why we do what we do as nurses. As I read I was impressed at how much theories have evolved and how many people have developed theories we still use today and have built upon. 

Yes she did give specific nursing examples and what theory they represented. Jacobson gave a total of three scenarios in nursing practice and what theory they specifically represent. The three theories that she outlined in her article were: Dorothy Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory, Rogers’ Theory of Unitary Human Beings, and Sister Callista Roy’s Adaptation Theory (Jacobson, 2017). These theories identified different aspects of nursing we take part in. 

Dorothy Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory is identified at the point that “nursing is required when an adult is incapable or limited in the provision of continuous, effective self-care” (Petiprin, 2016). Jacobson’s example for this theory included moments of teaching the patient how to care for themselves and their surgical wounds and assisting with ADL’s (2017).

Rogers’ Theory of Unitary Human Beings explains that the human interaction in both self and environment can influence the way people feel connected. The specific example Jacobson gave was a stage 4 cancer patient in their room with the family and it felt very quiet and sad. The nurse at the time offered to put on a comedy which the family agreed and in her doing so the room felt more positive and everyone seemed to enjoy it (2017).

Sister Callista Roy’s Adaptation Theory is the use of “conscious awareness, self-reflection, and choice to create human and environmental integration” to influence positive change to the environment around them” (Petiprin, 2016). This theory is all about adapting to the environment around ones self. The example Jacobson provided was about a girl who was involved in a shark attack who lost her left arm during the attack and desires to begin ambulating and reading books again (2017). 

References

Jacobson, S. (2017). Building Bridges from Theory to Practice: Nursing Theory for Clinical Nurses. Med-Surg Matters, 26(3), 1-15.

Petiprin, A. (2016). Self Care Deficit Theory. Retrieved from http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/orem-self-care-deficit-theory.php (Links to an external site.)

Petiprin, A. (2016). Science of Unitary Human Beings. Retrieved from http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/roger-theory-of-unitary-human-beings.php

Petiprin, A. (2016). Roy Adaptation Model. Retrieved from http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/roy-adaptation-model.php (Links to an external site.)

Thank you for your interesting commentary. Jacobson utilized Dorothy Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory to support her wound care education example (Jacobson, 2017). Orem’s theory emphasizes the importance of the nurse-to-patient education regarding the skills that they will need to care for themselves after discharge (Younas, 2017).

Florence Nightingale believed that a clean environment is essential for healing. Ali Pirani (2015) describes a COPD patient’s cluttered hospital room, and claims that the disorganization may have led to that patient’s subsequent clinical crisis.

We often treat patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) on my medical floor. CF usually affects the lungs, the pancreas and the intestinal tract. It’s characterized by an overexcretion of viscous mucus that settles into the lungs and provides a welcoming environment for chronic bacterial infections. It also coats the intestinal tract and blocks the absorption of essential nutrients from digested food.

Many of our CF patients are in their twenties and early thirties. They have a high rate of admission recidivism, and they tend to stay for at least a week at a time. Since they’re used to being in the hospital, they tend to make themselves at home in their rooms. Their mothers or significant others usually stay with them for much of time.

They also tend to keep their rooms a total mess. They’ll have leftover food sitting around, but they save it in case they want to eat it later. Dirty linen and overflowing trash containers often sit in there for days at a time. They also have their clothing and electronic devices strewn throughout the area. There are several reasons for this, but one must wonder about the detrimental effect that it may have on their health.

Reference

Ali Pirani, S.S. (2016). Application of Nightingale’s theory in nursing

     practice. Annals of Nursing and Practice, 3(1), 1040.

     Retrieved from: https://www.jscimedcentral.com/Nursing/nursing-3- (Links to an external site.)

     1040-pdf

Jacobson, S. (2017). Building bridges from theory to practice: Nursing

     theory for clinical nurses. Med-Surg Matters, 26(3), 1-15.

     Retrieved from:

     htttps://nursetim.com/presenters/Sheri_Jacobson_PhD_MS_RN

Younas, A. (2017). A foundational analysis of Dorothea Orem’s self-

     care theory and evaluation of its significance for nursing practice and

     research. Creative Nursing, 23(1), 13-23.

     doi: 10.1891/1078-4535.23,1.13

Nursing theory is the backbone of the nursing profession – it gives it structure and shape. If a nurse is asked, “What is nursing?” every professional nurse should understand their role and be able to concisely define the nurse’s function and value. This is a hurdle that professional nursing has yet to clear. Nursing theory addresses this issue. It is vital that nursing theory be taught, adopted, and understood by all professional nurses. Without nursing professionals understanding their role and their value as a profession, nurses will continue to struggle to be recognized as a distinct part of the healthcare system. The nursing profession is often seen as workers that carry out doctor’s orders. This is an idea which leaves little room to understand that nurses act with autonomy and employ judgement and critical thinking with most nursing functions. Nursing theory guides our practice, and allows us as nurses to define our profession as opposed to being widely seen as laborers that carry out orders.

          Scully (2015) discussed the importance of developing leaders in the nursing community. The article theorized that to develop a consistent quality of nurse leaders an accepted leadership theory must be adopted. These same principles apply to nursing theory. Nursing theory guides the nursing practice. Without a definition, nursing has no unique identity and will continue to have difficulties being accepted as a distinct, and vital, profession, not just as a support role of another profession. Colley (2003) stated that having an accepted nursing theory also helps individual nurses understand their place within the healthcare organization.

          Bliss, Baltzly, Bull, Dalton and Jones (2017) outlined the importance of nursing having a unified nursing theory. They identified nursing theories often focuses on the scientific or the human qualities. We, among ourselves as nurses, must solidify how we describe our function and define the theory that drives our practice. How we define ourselves will determine the place of the professional nurse, and advanced practice nurse, within the healthcare system.

          With the landscape of healthcare, and the role of the advanced practice nurse, changing it is imperative that a unified nursing theory be adopted by professional nurses as a whole, and advanced practice nurses specifically. For advanced practice nurses to continue to gain autonomy, and be recognized as thinkers as much as doers, nursing theory must be at the foundation of every nurses practice.

References

Bliss, S., Baltzly, D., Bull, R., Dalton, L., & Jones, J. (2017). A role for virtue in unifying the ‘knowledge’ and ‘caring’ discourses in nursing theory. Nursing Inquiry, 24(4). doi:10.1111/nin.12191. Retrieved from https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=125686564&site=eds-live&scope=site (Links to an external site.)

Colley, S. (2003). Nursing theory: Its importance to practice. Nurs Stand., 17(46). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12961951/ (Links to an external site.)

Scully, N. J. (2015). Leadership in nursing: The importance of recognising inherent values and attributes to secure a positive future for the profession. Collegian, 22439-444. doi:10.1016/j.colegn.2014.09.004. Retrieved from https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselp&AN=S1322769614000869&site=eds-live&scope=site (Links to an external site.)

Participation for MSN

Threaded Discussion Guiding Principles

The ideas and beliefs underpinning the threaded discussions (TDs) guide students through engaging dialogues as they achieve the desired learning outcomes/competencies associated with their course in a manner that empowers them to organize, integrate, apply and critically appraise their knowledge to their selected field of practice. The use of TDs provides students with opportunities to contribute level-appropriate knowledge and experience to the topic in a safe, caring, and fluid environment that models professional and social interaction. The TD’s ebb and flow is based upon the composition of student and faculty interaction in the quest for relevant scholarship. Participation in the TDs generates opportunities for students to actively engage in the written ideas of others by carefully reading, researching, reflecting, and responding to the contributions of their peers and course faculty. TDs foster the development of members into a community of learners as they share ideas and inquiries, consider perspectives that may be different from their own, and integrate knowledge from other disciplines.

Participation Guidelines

Each weekly threaded discussion is worth up to 25 points. Students must post a minimum of two times in each graded thread. The two posts in each individual thread must be on separate days. The student must provide an answer to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week. If the student does not provide an answer to each graded thread topic (not a response to a student peer) before the Wednesday deadline, 5 points are deducted for each discussion thread in which late entry occurs (up to a 10-point deduction for that week). Subsequent posts, including essential responses to peers, must occur by the Sunday deadline, 11:59 p.m. MT of each week.

Direct Quotes

Good writing calls for the limited use of direct quotes. Direct quotes in Threaded Discussions are to be limited to one short quotation (not to exceed 15 words). The quote must add substantively to the discussion. Points will be deducted under the Grammar, Syntax, APA category.

Grading Rubric Guidelines

Performance Category	10	9	8	4	0
ScholarlinessDemonstrates achievement of scholarly inquiry for professional and academic decisions.	Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry clearly stating how the evidence informed or changed professional or academic decisionsEvaluates literature resources to develop a comprehensive analysis or synthesis.Uses valid, relevant, and reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion	Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry but does not clearly state how the evidence informed or changed professional or academic decisions.Evaluates information from source(s) to develop a coherent analysis or synthesis.Uses some valid, relevant, reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion.	Discusses using scholarly inquiry but does not state how scholarly inquiry informed or changed professional or academic decisions.Information is taken from source(s) with some interpretation/evaluation, but not enough to develop a coherent analysis or synthesis.Little valid, relevant, or reliable outside sources are used to contribute to the threaded discussion.Demonstrates little or no understanding of the topic.	Discusses using scholarly inquiry but does not state how scholarly inquiry informed or changed professional or academic decisions.Information is taken from source(s) without any interpretation/evaluation.The posting uses information that is not valid, relevant, or reliable	No evidence of the use of scholarly inquiry to inform or change professional or academic decisions.Information is not valid, relevant, or reliable
Performance Category	10	9	8	4	0
Application of Course Knowledge -Demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and/or apply principles and concepts learned in the course lesson and outside readings and relate them to real-life professional situations	Posts make direct reference to concepts discussed in the lesson or drawn from relevant outside sources;Applies concepts to personal experience in the professional setting and or relevant application to real life.	Posts make direct reference to concepts discussed in the lesson or drawn from relevant outside sources.Applies concepts to personal experience in their professional setting and or relevant application to real lifeInteractions with classmates are relevant to the discussion topic but do not make direct reference to lesson content	Posts are generally on topic but do not build knowledge by incorporating concepts and principles from the lesson.Does not attempt to apply lesson concepts to personal experience in their professional setting and or relevant application to real lifeDoes not demonstrate a solid understanding of the principles and concepts presented in the lesson	Posts do not adequately address the question posed either by the discussion prompt or the instructor’s launch post.Posts are superficial and do not reflect an understanding of the lesson contentDoes not attempt to apply lesson concepts to personal experience in their professional setting and or relevant application to real life	Posts are not related to the topics provided by the discussion prompt or by the instructor; attempts by the instructor to redirect the student are ignoredNo discussion of lesson concepts to personal experience in the professional setting and or relevant application to real life
Performance Category	5	4	3	2	0
Interactive DialogueReplies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts a minimum of two times in each graded thread, on separate days.(5 points possible per graded thread)	Exceeds minimum post requirementsReplies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts three or more times in each graded thread, over three separate days.Replies to a post posed by faculty and to a peerSummarizes what was learned from the lesson, readings, and other student posts for the week.	Replies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts a minimum of two times in each graded thread, on separate daysReplies to a question posed by a peerSummarizes what was learned from the lesson, readings, and other student posts for the week.	Meets expectations of 2 posts on 2 different days.The main post is not made by the Wednesday deadlineDoes not reply to a question posed by a peer or faculty	Has only one post for the weekDiscussion posts contain few, if any, new ideas or applications; often are a rehashing or summary of other students’ comments	Does not post to the threadNo connections are made to the topic
	Minus 1 Point	Minus 2 Point	Minus 3 Point	Minus 4 Point	Minus 5 Point
Grammar, Syntax, APANote: if there are only a few errors in these criteria, please note this for the student in as an area for improvement. If the student does not make the needed corrections in upcoming weeks, then points should be deducted.Points deducted for improper grammar, syntax and APA style of writing.The source of information is the APA Manual 6th Edition	2-3 errors in APA format.Written responses have 2-3 grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.Writing style is generally clear, focused, and facilitates communication.	4-5 errors in APA format.Writing responses have 4-5 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.Writing style is somewhat focused.	6-7 errors in APA format.Writing responses have 6-7 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.Writing style is slightly focused making discussion difficult to understand.	8-10 errors in APA format.Writing responses have 8-10 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.Writing style is not focused, making discussion difficult to understand.	Post contains greater than 10 errors in APA format.Written responses have more than 10 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.Writing style does not facilitate communication.The student continues to make repeated mistakes in any of the above areas after written correction by the instructor
	0 points lost				-5 points lost
Total Participation Requirementsper discussion thread	The student answers the threaded discussion question or topic on one day and posts a second response on another day.				The student does not meet the minimum requirement of two postings on two different days
Early Participation Requirementper discussion thread	The student must provide a substantive answer to the graded discussion question(s) or topic(s), posted by the course instructor (not a response to a peer), by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT of each week.				The student does not meet the requirement of a substantive response to the stated question or topic by Wednesday at 11:59 pm MT.

NOTE: To receive credit for a week’s discussion, students may begin posting no earlier than the Sunday immediately before each week opens. Unless otherwise specified, access to most weeks begins on Sunday at 12:01 a.m. MT, and that week’s assignments are due by the next Sunday by 11:59 p.m. MT. Week 8 opens at 12:01 a.m. MT Sunday and closes at 11:59 p.m. MT Wednesday. Any assignments and all discussion requirements must be completed by 11:59 p.m. MT Wednesday of the eighth week.