Do you find the nursing theorists/theories you studied in school useful in real life?

[DichloroacetateAl]

I'm studying Porifice's theory of humanbecoming. I find it hard to implement in the clinical setting. Did the theories that you studied in college come in handy in the clinical setting?

[ByTheLake]

PA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

No.

Their point is not to be useful in the real world. Their purpose is to justify their paychecks (or create them) by getting grant funding for the next study. Most of the questions asked by these studies could be answered like this: "Well, duh!!"

[ByTheLake]

But did your increased understanding and empathy have anything like a desired outcome--like your patients (if you still care for them directly) actually damaging themselves less and taking care of themselves more? If not, then all the empathy in the world doesn't matter.

I'm not saying that ALL nursing research is useless, just that a HUGE amount of it is bunk and useless.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

In all seriousness, nursing theories and nursing dx DO serve a purpose in an educational setting. They can help a student brand new to nursing and healthcare organize their thoughts. But when it comes to actual bedside care? Of course not.

All "nursing diagnoses" are just medical dx or symptoms of medical dx re-worded. This drive to say we are completely separate and use a separate set of dx is silly and naive. Now, I do believe in independent nursing interventions, but I've found that even with these the "nursing researchers" have delusions of grandeur. Most of these interventions are in the "well, duh" category. Elevate the HOB? repositioning? Redirect the sundowning old lady wandering the halls naked? No, we don't need complicated nursing dx to justify these interventions. I learned them as a CNA.

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

I agree with GrnTea, wholeheartedly. And also with the comment that people hate what they don't understand. Sad truth.

Nola Pender is my personal hero! I also have a lot of appreciation for the much (unfairly) maligned, Jean Watson. I would say they and David Hume have influenced my practice, and life, profoundly.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Things can be understood and not accepted. And without hate.

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

What can happen and what does happen are wildly different things.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

All right, then explain what we don't understand. I think we understand exactly, we just don't accept that pushing these theories does much except justify someone's job.

Trust me, I get the concept that with grad-school level education comes a greater understanding of these theories. How could it not? But I remain skeptical that any nurse anywhere really utilizes them at the bedside level.

Again, the end result conclusions that all these theories come to are of the "well, duh" variety.

And while medicine and nursing are obviously two different disciplines, this attempt to create our "own" set of dx, interventions, etc. is, at best, naive. Feel free to prove me wrong...

[minnymi]

people who are educated don't even realize the value of their education because it's all they know.

so, it's really a hard question to answer.

i was known for complaining during lecture about all the skills i should be learning instead of listening to 'theory,' BUT education is valued in the nursing field and most every other profession....so it has to be useful, right?

surely, the hospitals who revolve around the almighty dollar wouldn't prefer the more educated RNs for no reason when they pay more money to employ them.

although some theories may seem unimportant to our everyday work....at one time those theories changed the way we do things. how important is it to know the p value of statistical studies? well, it's probably not useful when you're working on the floor, but when you are looking up information to implement in your work....that information would come in handy. i can't tell you how many times i've had someone cite a reference and after reading the reference, i've realized it was basically worthless because the data was based on joe blow's experience with his own mother vs. his experience with 1,000 patients with X condition from different regions of the united states. some people really believe that if something is printed by anyone with a few letters behind their name then it MUST be true!

today, if i said that using alcohol gel EVERY time i went into/out of a room was important....people would be like, "duh." but at one time....that would've been laughed at. just about everything came from a "theory" that someone didn't think was important at one point or another.

[PennyWise]

I used to be someone who agreed with the critics of Watson when they said "It dummies down the nursing profession, makes it seem as though anynoe who is coochi-coochi with their patients is a nurse."

Not so much anymore.

You will find most what she has to say about nursing theory are things that are done at the bedside. Theraputic touch is a good example. At times I find myself wondering if Watson did not foresee the problems that were going to take possession of nursing: Paperwork becoming so overwhelming that is takes precidence over the person, ratios and acuity spreading nurses so thin that individualized/holistic care is a mirage and burn out leading nurses to be generally bitter towards patients.

You could almost take Watson's theories as a subtle warcry to remember the bedside care matters. Nobody cares what you know until they know you care.

I do somewhat apply this "forget what the institution thinks I should be doing, I know what is right from wrong and for now I'm more concerned with the patient" to my care, but with tact. New forms to fill out are created on a daily basis, administrators constantly want to shift more non-bedside duties to nurses and management wants to schedule meetings/mandatory education during times when I should be doing patient care. I don't do any of it until the patient needs are met. I get a lot of teeth clicking directed at me and people always say "You're going to make a lot of enemies fast that way, acting like you don't care what the bosses think" but.........eh, I'm still here.

I also keep this perspective in mind while I am delivering care and feel a patient is being too needy or I am simply tired. The requests they are making may seem trite to me, but to them its more than just getting their blinds readjusted (for the eighth time) or their water refreshed. Its the act that lifts them up.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Minnymi, you make a good point about how theories shape how we practice from a historical point of view. My mom told me once how they used to change briefs w/o wearing gloves!! If we didn't do the research to prove that's not good practice, we might still be doing it that way.

I guess my point is all of that is only necessary and helpful at the Masters or educational level. Bedside nursing education really *should* be more skilled/task focused. I think we can all agree there are woefully inexperienced new grads being churned out. I just think all the time force-feeding LPN and entry level RN students nursing dx and stuff like that is wasting valuable time that could be spent on actual skills or hands on care.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

We've drifted from a discussion of nursing theory to evidence-based practice. Mathematics, as in statistics, is not nursing theory, nor is microbiology. And the gloves had little to do with EBP and everything to do with panic over AIDS and other newly emerging blood borne pathogens - and othing to do with nursing theory.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Suesquatch,RN, isn't nursing theory part of evidence based practice, or is it something separate?