Nursing Theories
Nursing theories are a group of concepts that define what
nursing is. They give structure to the
nursing practice. They are in place to guide the nurse, to provide principles
used in decision making and caring for patients (Kozier et al., 2010). Nurse
theorists combined nursing concepts with their own philosophies to develop the
nursing theories that are practiced today. Here are a just a few of the different nursing theories.
Florence Nightingale's Environmental Theory
The first nurse theorist was Florence Nightingale. She proved that the proper environmental conditions must be achieved in order to achieve health. These environmental factors are: Fresh air, clean water, proper drainage, cleanliness, and sunlight. She also believed that keeping the patient in a warm, quiet place, and offered care and compassion played a crucial role in survival. (Kozier et al., 2010).
Hildegard Peplau’s Interpersonal Relations Model
This theory was developed in 1952 by Peplau, a psychiatric nurse who believed the centre of nursing was a therapeutic relationship with the patient. While this is commonplace in today’s nursing practice, in the 1950’s patients were still being treated more as objects. Many of Peplau’s concepts are present in theories used today such as the need for the nurse to fill many roles including teacher, and counselor (Kozier et al., 2010).
Jean Watson’s Human Caring Theory
Human caring is the focus of the theory Jean Watson developed in 1979. It is the theory that is used in many hospitals and schools including the school I am attending, Georgian College. Watson’s beliefs include providing a caring environment for the client, allowing for the client to hope, accepting positive and negative emotions in the client, creating a healing environment, and being open to spirituality (Kozier et al., 2010). Watson also believes in providing transpersonal care, which is when “the nurse seeks to connect with and embrace the spirit or soul of the other through genuine and authentic engagement” (Kozier et al., 2010, p. 64).
Madeline Leininger's Culture Care Diversity and Universality Theory
Madeline Leininger believed in client-centred care, which involves choice and preference in regards to their culture. Her theory includes three intervention modes to help the nurse facilitate client choice when it comes to cultural beliefs. These modes include culture care preservation, which is the maintenance of customs, culture care accommodation, which may involve negotiating the custom if there are health risks, and culture care re-patterning which would help the client to develop new patterns. Leininger developed the Sunrise Model. The purpose of the sunrise model is to help nurses to care for people of diverse cultures (Kozier et al., 2010).