Nursing Theories Importance

Nursing theories Importance

-are the basis of nursing practice today
-help recognize what should set the foundation of practice by explicitly describing nursing.
-also helps nurses understand their purpose and role in the healthcare setting.
-serve as a rationale or scientific reasons for nursing interventions and give nurses the knowledge base necessary for acting and responding appropriately in nursing care situations.
-provide the foundations of nursing practice, generate further knowledge, and indicate which direction nursing should develop in the future (Brown, 1964).
-providing nurses a sense of identity, nursing theory can help patients, managers, and other healthcare professionals to acknowledge and understand the unique contribution that nurses make to the healthcare service.
-prepare the nurses to reflect on the assumptions and question the nursing values, thus further defining nursing and increasing the knowledge base.
-aim to define, predict, and demonstrate nursing phenomenon (Chinn and Jacobs, 1978).
-It can be regarded as an attempt by the nursing profession to maintain and preserve its professional limits and boundaries.
-In many cases, nursing theories guide knowledge development and directs education, research, and practice, although each influences the others. (Fitzpatrick and Whall, 2005).

Purposes of Nursing Theories

-is to improve practice by positively influencing the health and quality of life of patients.
-are also developed to define and describe nursing care, guide nursing practice, and provide a basis for clinical decision-making.
-the accomplishments of nursing led to the recognition of nursing in an academic discipline, research, and profession

In Academic Discipline

Much of the earlier nursing programs identified the major concepts in one or two nursing models, organized the concepts, and build an entire nursing curriculum around the created framework.

In Research

The development of theory is fundamental to the research process, where it is necessary to use theory as a framework to provide perspective and guidance to the research study.

In Profession

Clinical practice generates research questions and knowledge for theory. In a clinical setting, its primary contribution has been the facilitation of reflecting, questioning, and thinking about what nurses do.