Nursing Theory

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Anyone feel like their books on the "theory" and "concepts" reads more like a DMV manual? Having just gotten my driver's license a month ago, I have that manual fresh in my mind. But this is ten times as long with less pictures! I would read a whole page of jargon and think to myself: "did it just tell me to be caring?"

I feel like im not even soaking in that much cause of how boring half this stuff is. I eagerly await any morsel of clinical references to make sense of all this abstract stuff. :banghead:

Am I even going to be using half this stuff?

Specializes in mental health.

Nursing theory is a component of the professions academic foundation. A profession can't exist without it's high priests (PhDs), vernacular, barriers to entry (NCLEX), and professional organization to develop strategy and fund the lobby required for political support of said strategy. Given all that, it's easier to break into nursing than the sheet metal workers union (where you pretty much have to marry in).

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I agree that most theory classes are badly taught -- and I have yet to find a really good textbook. Regretably, because of that sad fact, many students learn to hate theory rather than to appreciate what it has to offer our profession.

Maybe someday, I will have time to write the classic nursing theory textbook of the future.

I think my textbook is "adequate" in the concepts its trying to explain. But I cant help but feel rushed in the whole process. On my first day of class, we were assigned about 10-11 chapters to read over the next 2 weeks. Thats about 220pages.

Ive jumped from psychology theories to health care approaches, to legality issues, to ethical issues, to self-concept, and im only on chapter 4! The strange thing is that Im reading all this for a communications class. We are apparently rushing through this for the first 5 weeks, then it becomes all online in the form of group discussions. A friend of mine who is 2 semesters ahead said her professor just tested on her lecture, and that he barely did the reading except for clarification. It makes me wonder what the point of this all is.

And reading this is tiring as well. Its very difficult to try to articulate the nuances of human communication, so the book either sounds repetitive or artificial. The dialogue scenarios it has all sounds reheorificed and occasionally corny. It draws alot of diagrams to try to explain the "process". It has a 11 step thing for critical thinking or something. I dont know, but Im definately not picking up half this stuff nor do I see myself applying it in a clinical setting.

And alot of it smacks of the new-age, feel-goodery, psycho-babble that I detest. /rant

Specializes in mental health.

No chapter summaries?

Disturbed aura R/T discord in M/F logic.

Chapter summaries usually dont feel like enough. Ive been adjusting my pace to get through these more quickly and dwelling less on weird stuff.

Dunno what the rest meant.

Specializes in mental health.
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Dunno what the rest meant.

bad attempt at a nursing diagnosis...we're working on them this semester

here, if you're interested in cardiology, this might cheer you up

Ah, theory. Every profession has to have it. I believe it tells you how the profession should be if it were being practiced in a vacuum and every patient/person were compliant with no outstanding issues other than the problem that the theory addresses. Personally, I think the main point of theory is to give PhD folks at the university validation for their jobs. There's theory, then there is the real world. Don't get me wrong, I think theory can be useful to give us some idea of what might be possible in a perfect world, but when we rely too much on theory and not enough on common sense, it only hinders our practice, whether we are nurses, or educators, or physicians, etc.

Specializes in Interested in Pediatrics, ER.

I have a bachelor's in psych, so when we started covering the nursing theory stuff I pretty much went into PTSD.....not this again, I thought! But hey, it's required for school. You learn what you need to for the tests (and here's a free tip: the right thing to say almost always starts with "It must be difficult to..." and ends with "would you like to talk more about this?"), and then when you are out there you just do what it is you do. Patients like or dislike you for the care they get, not because you talk like a nursing textbook.

Ya, thats sorta how all these convos in the book goes.

What I am curious about is why are you even bothering reading that BS? The people that write that crap need to either 1. get laid 2. get drunk or 3. get a life. I totally feel you though, I personally think the material from the DMV is more interesting.

Specializes in Interested in Pediatrics, ER.

I guess the short answer is because it's on the NCLEX....

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