Is Nursing practice patterned after certain nursing theorists?

I believe that real world nursing has nothing to do with any energy orbs, circles of defense, or any other hoopla nursing theory that instructors try to shove down your throat. In fact, you should ask your theory instructor the last time they actually participated in any kind of bedside care. At best, Henderson got it right by saying nursing attempts to do for patients what they cannot do for themselves.

Unforunately, they will probably be teaching you how to perfect a concept map on one of these jokers rather than teaching you how to distinguish the difference between something simple such as A-fib and a sinus rhythm. Wait until you have to take a Cultural "Sensitivity" class. If you really want to learn be prepared to do a lot of self study.

The theory stuff gets even worse when you go for your MSN.

I believe that real world nursing has nothing to do with any energy orbs, circles of defense, or any other hoopla nursing theory that instructors try to shove down your throat. In fact, you should ask your theory instructor the last time they actually participated in any kind of bedside care. At best, Henderson got it right by saying nursing attempts to do for patients what they cannot do for themselves.

Unforunately, they will probably be teaching you how to perfect a concept map on one of these jokers rather than teaching you how to distinguish the difference between something simple such as A-fib and a sinus rhythm. Wait until you have to take a Cultural "Sensitivity" class. If you really want to learn be prepared to do a lot of self study.

The theory stuff gets even worse when you go for your MSN.

Couldn't have said it better!

wonderful post, ilg.

op and all new bsn students, thank you.

gives one much to think about.

leslie

Thanks llg. I am so glad you are on here because of the perspective and knowledge you bring.

In nursing school I used to think theories were a bunch of hooey, laughed myself silly over "connected-reconnectedness" or whatever... but once I started practicing I realized how, if nursing has no theory or philosophy (or if you have no theory or philosophy as a nurse), it becomes a set of tasks.

Think about it.

Thank you so very much for your responses. I am still muddling my way through the nursing theory book, of which some of the info is pretty confusing. However, I must admit that many of the issues that have been brought up by nurse theorists have opened my eyes to the fact that nursing is more than "just bedside care", and that certain theories can enhance personal growth and development. I shall keep my mind open to learning, and continue reading. Thank you again. Nancy

In my opinion, a good nursing theory should be fairly easy to grasp and apply day to day. There may be other, interesting, useful esoteric philosophies of nursing out there, but for the basics of 'what is nursing?' and foundational bedside care, there's no need to make it difficult or complex.

My experience with nursing education across the board, though, was that it seemed things that were quite simple (eg basic skills and concepts like sterile fields) were often strung out and nit-picked to death as if they were more complex and difficult to grasp conceptually while complex skills (eg prioritizing, delegating) were cursorily given lots of lip service but little practical application or detailed exploration as if they said it enough - "you need to learn to prioritize/delegate" - that you'd somehow magically learn how to do it.

Anyway, I think a foundational nursing theory should be simple because that kind of = theory is developed as a framework through which different activities and observations can be viewed for consistency and to hypothesize on unexplored areas - for example, if there's a new technology developed, would it be considered 'nursing care' or not?

I do admit, though, a bias toward scientific theories as opposed to philosophical theories, especially in regard to applied clinical nursing practice. As you noted, llg, many instructors of nursing theory aren't well-grounded in theory. Some instructors can confuse students (confused me, anyway) by implying that esoteric nursing theory is equivalent to scientific theory.

While nursing isn't *just* about task performance, task performance *IS* a major component of nursing care and I do think merits more attention in school/training. Of course, not just task performance, but also the ability to recognize when tasks are needed (eg a patient needs to be suctioned) and an understanding of why one is doing the task and how it works to help the patient. To me, THAT is the important "why" and "bigger picture" that new nurses need to learn so that they aren't just "doing" and overly task-focused.

Any overarching nursing theory at that level, I think should be basic like "helping the patient acheive their highest level of self-care" or "assisting the patient cope with illness" - nothing tricky or hard to figure out.... why give water, oxygen, etc? To help the patient maintain the highest level physiological well-being (prevent dehydration, etc) ... beyond that it's the reason are in the realm of physiology and not unique to nursing. Why encourage a patient to brush their own teeth, etc? Because, according to basic nursing theory based on solid psychological and physiological ground, nurses role is to assist the patient to attain their highest level of self care. No need to get more complex on a theoretical level than that for beginner level. Perhaps there's a better name out there for that than theory. Anyway, there's enough other material to cover such as the psychological and physiological concepts that play into what is good nursing care.

But to be able to apply an esoteric nursing theory doesn't seem like high-priority entry-level stuff.

Well, just my not-so-well-thought-out-thoughts that only marginally relate to the OP's initial inquiry!!!