Module 5: Inquiry in Action II - Theory and Relational Inquiry

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering theoretical frameworks, relational inquiry lenses, theory classifications, and the nursing metaparadigm from Module 5.

Theory

A purposeful set of assumptions or propositions that helps explain, predict, prescribe, or guide action; it is how nurses organize understanding and action.

Phenomenon

Something we are trying to understand, such as pain, anxiety, discharge, or shortness of breath.

Concepts

Ideas that help us name and organize a phenomenon.

Assumptions

Taken-for-granted beliefs about people, health, nursing, or the environment.

Propositions

Claims about how concepts relate to one another.

Grand Theory

A broad and complex type of nursing theory.

Middle-Range Theory

A type of theory that addresses specific phenomena and reflects practice.

Descriptive Theory

The first level of theory development.

Prescriptive Theory

A type of theory that addresses nursing interventions and predicts their consequences.

Nursing Metaparadigm

Four interrelated concepts—Person, Nursing, Environment, and Health—that categorize the factors shaping and defining the nurse-patient relationship and provide a structure for comparing theories.

Person (Metaparadigm Concept)

The recipient of nursing care within the nursing metaparadigm.

Nursing (Metaparadigm Concept)

The actions of the person administering care within the nursing metaparadigm.

Environment (Metaparadigm Concept)

The internal and external conditions surrounding the patient within the nursing metaparadigm.

Health (Metaparadigm Concept)

The patient's level of wellness or well-being within the nursing metaparadigm.

Hermeneutic Phenomenologic (HP) Lens

A theorizing tool that interprets illness as a meaningful experience shaped by family, culture, and life context, recognizing that the same situation can be interpreted differently and that life experiences are unique with shared meaning.

Critical Lens

A theorizing tool emphasizing that social orders involve domination and power, knowledge is shaped by power relations, and truth can never be separated from values or ideologies.

Pragmatic Approach to Theory

An approach that evaluates a theory based on what difference it makes in actual practice and whether it helps produce more responsive, health-promoting action.

Choice Architecture

A structure that organizes the questions nurses ask, the options they see, which concerns are escalated, and whether action aligns with nursing values and commitments.

Practice Based Models

A category of nursing theoretical models exemplified by Florence Nightingale and the McGill model.

Needs Theories

A category of nursing theoretical models exemplified by Dorothea Orem and Virginia Henderson.

Interactionist Theories

A category of nursing theoretical models exemplified by Hildegard Peplau, Joyce Travelbee, and Evelyn Adam (Adams).

Systems Theories

A category of nursing theoretical models exemplified by Dorothy Johnson, Betty Neuman, and Sister Callista Roy.

Simultaneity Theories

A category of nursing theoretical models exemplified by Martha Rogers, Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, and Jean Watson.

Paterson & Zderad's Theory

A theory that views nursing as a happening between people, focusing on being with, doing with, and the here-and-now to make the relationship itself visible.

Newman's Theory

A theory defining health as expanding consciousness, directing attention to emerging patterns, meaning, and growth in a person's life situation rather than isolated symptoms.

Parse's Theory

A theory of human becoming centered on meaning, value priorities, and possibilities, highlighting the person's own choices rather than solely the nurse's interpretation.