Nursing Theory

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).

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

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.

...

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.

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.

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

It's only been a few days but I've been reading some about nursing theory...have an APA formatted paper on Dorothea Orem that I have to crank out by Wed...along with a **** load of other work...you may ask yourself, "what is he doing here when he should be working"...I'm not a liberal arts sort. I can't write for ****...so, I'm slowing my brain down a bit before getting back to sorting through all the wild ideas...

You've got to consider the context of these folks that came up with these theories. Orem began developing hers because her career moved her from practicing nurse to educator. We're talking a different formality than her learnign experience as a diploma nurse at a Catholic(Providence in D.C.) hospital. This was back in the 40's and 50's. Nursing was workling it's way collegiate academics. Most of the early theorists were in the same boat. Plus...they were getting PAID to do this. Take a woman in the 40's who is of intellectual bent and stick her in nursing school. It's natural that she's going to want to do more than housekeeping and doctors orders. Then she realizes she's in a wide open field in ediucation...whoopeee.

OK...the theories. I confess, I read a little of Leininger's and could not get past the self aggrandizing for an attempt at grokking. Orem is readable and while somewhat grandiose(her's gets classified as a grand theory by the late comers who don't have a shot a cornerstone position in the field) is quite straightforward and pragmatic. Basically she looked at what nurses do and why people need nursing and wrote it up as a conceptual model. Of course a model needs testing and refinement and that's what she did and now we have taadaa!!! nursing care plans. I thought these were BS at first but really they are just as practical as planning a motorbike restoration. A lot of wasted effort, time, and money is saved by having a model upon which to base your restoration or your nursing system...In other words...youve got a recipe for figuring out what you're gonna do.

What makes Orem's theory grand is that it can be used to model what a practicing nurse is gonna do...care planning for eample...or what a nursing educator is gonna do...teach nursing skills and thinking within a framework that defines nursing...OR EVEN applies to government health care...Yes, Orem soent a lot of the time she was working on her theory in the context of government health care. Her theory provides a framework for statistical measurement of care needs in populations. Included in this framework is the idea that the care that is needed is dependent upon the culture of the population...In a benign sense, one might consider that Chinese would need fewer nursing home beds for the same level of individual self-care deficit among the elderly than say your average cowboy North American. The concept expands nicely to the idea that your share cropper is not familiar with many aspects of modern medicine and therefore will not miss what he does not know exists. Kind of like we don't fear those tiny mosquito sized robots that DODSI has buzzing around our heads to verify that we're not uncircumcised heathens, every time we take a leak outdoors...

OK...enough free form dribble...Time to get started on this paper.

-your friend Katz

ooo ooo ooo, I want some blue. Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer....mmmmuust wwwrite pppaper...