Nursing Theorists A nurse is known for their compassion, ability to assist with healing, and their knowledge. Historically, compassion and ability to follow limited guidelines and doctor orders seems to have been what was required of anyone wanting to be a nurse. Times have been changing over the last 50 years and that change is accelerating. Anyone wanting to become a nurse will need to be medically knowledgeable and more of a clinician than ever before. Yet it is not as though nursing theory has only recently come into existence this century. Real theorists have been hard at work developing the theoretical framework for nursing practice for some time. For whatever reason, one desires to become a nurse, we must all start at the beginning …show more content…
Many of the “nursing problems” that Abdellah lists are issues that all or most of my patients face and that I need to address. For example, “… (2) promoting optimal activity, exercise, rest, sleep, (3) promoting safety through prevention of accident, injury or other trauma and through prevention of the spread of infection, (3) maintain good body mechanics and prevent and correct deformity….” (Pokorny, 2014, p. 46) really outline what I spend most of my time doing on our orthopedic floor at Duke Regional. We do have on occasion, a patient that will not meet their expected outcomes, however; we and I still plan as if they will return to the their most recent way of ambulation. Little did I know that during my practice I was applying Faye Abdellah’s nursing theory of “problem-centered approach or philosophy of nursing” (Pokorny, 2014, p. …show more content…
I was used to saying using the term “theory” in a phrase such as “Well, that’s your theory” is a dismissive way to denigrate what someone else was saying. In that instance, I see I should have used the word “opinion” rather than “theory.” A theory, at least in the sense I have read over the last two days, is far more than a mere opinion. “‘Theory’ is defined as: ‘A system of rules, procedures and assumptions used to produce a result’” (quoting Collings English Dictionary 10th ed. Harper Collins P. 22 May 2011). From my reading, it appears that a theory is actually the result of intense, deep and often peer-reviewed study. I think I see the purpose of having us read about theories in contexts other than nursing was to take our attention off the specifics of what was being presented in our nursing study and to pay attention to fundamentally what a theory is generally and then apply that realization to the purpose of nursing theory in our personal