Application of Nursing Theory to Practice - Essay Example

? Application of Nursing Theory to Practice Application of Nursing Theory to Practice Introduction The situation of the scenario involved patients who had an increase in average systolic blood pressure and an increase in diastolic blood pressure and were seeking ways to deal with the high blood pressure problem. These patients experienced an elevation of blood pressure in the arteries (Fahey, Schroeder, & Ebrahaim, 2006). The patients were examined for symptoms associated with high blood pressure to discover the true problem. They were asked to recall the incidents, thoughts, and the feelings that were produced. The nurses thought of how problem may have been tackled in a different way, and if additional knowledge would alter the situation. The foremost parties involved in the problem of high blood pressure included nurses, doctors and individuals whose lifestyles or lifestyle changes promoted high blood pressure. The doctors had the responsibility of ascertaining the signs and symptoms associated with high blood pressure and giving directions on how the patient should deal with the condition. The nurses had the duty of making sure the guidelines given by the doctor were followed by the high blood pressure patients. The patients had a duty of cooperating with the nurse and explaining their condition so that the doctor could do a proper diagnosis. All this took place in a medical institution. In addition, there may be other conflicts that may be present in this situation. The patient may not be willing to follow the instructions provided by the doctor, the patient may not be willing to cooperate with the nurse, and, finally, the interventions proposed to deal with the condition may not be helpful in severe circumstances. The most appropriate theory that may be utilized to guide nursing interventions is the Self-Regulation theory. This theory asserts that effectively accomplishing an intended behavior is a purpose of three fundamental self-regulatory phases that a person should take part in, they include; self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement. This model suggests that people are inspired to transform their behavior and have the capacity for self-direction and self-action, nonetheless, such action and direction requires the development of skills. The purpose of this paper is to choose a middle range theory that may be applied to the predicament of high blood pressure. This paper will describe the theory, its application in research, its application to research, and an alternative theory that may guide practice in an identical situation. Description of Theory The self-regulation theory asserts that effectively accomplishing an intended behavior is a purpose of three fundamental self-regulatory phases that a person should take part in, they include; self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement. This model suggests that people are inspired to transform their behavior and have the capacity for self-direction and self-action, nonetheless, such action and direction requires the development of skills. The theory indicates that people realize self-regulation by utilizing a response sphere made up of incessant monitoring, assessing, and strengthening their behavior. This sphere takes place in all individuals. Nonetheless, the sphere may be maladaptive if liability is consented for negative behaviors but not for positive ones in the strengthening stage, standards are not attainable in the assessment stage, or if negative components are observed and positive components are not noticed in the mentoring stage. Self-regulation techniques assist people to be conscious of the phases and to make suitable alterations in monitoring, assessing, and reinforcing. Moreover, the self-regulation theory is found on assertions of the social learning theory which asserts that daily behavior is made up of related behavior reactions which are habitual and prompted by previous reactions. This is recognized as an automatic mode of cognitive processing. These automatic procedures do not need attention and may take place when accomplishing different activities, and tend to be demanding to transform because they are properly developed. Self-regulation procedures are required when there is need to learn new behavior chains, or when normal reactions are not effective (Anderson, Winett, & Wojcik, 2007). Finally, self-regulation begins by controlled processing. This causes concentrated attention and nonstop decision making within different reactions. Application in Research Self-blood pressure monitoring has proved to be adequate in enhancing blood pressure management in a number of people. In a meta-analysis investigating 18 randomized controlled trials to establish the impact of self-blood pressure monitoring, self-blood pressure monitoring was connected with a tremendous decrease in average systolic BP-2.5 mmHg. In the view of mean diastolic BP, self-blood pressure monitoring was linked to a decline in diastolic BP of -1.8 mmHg. The number of people who took part in this meta-analysis was made up of grow patients, with 18 years and above, with critical high blood pressure in outpatient, primary care, or community setting. The research was made up of 1998 contestants and the duration of the investigations varied from 6 weeks to 2 years (Glynn, Murphy, Smith, Schroeder, & Fahey, 2010). Another meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials by Cappuccio, Kerry, Forbes, and Donald (2004) investigated the impact of home blood pressure monitoring on blood pressure levels and the number of individuals with crucial high blood pressure realizing blood pressure objectives. The number of people who took part in the meta-analysis included 2714 individuals, the duration of investigations lasted between 2 to 3 months, and the surroundings entailed general practices and mixed settings, communities, and out-patient clinics. The general impact of the blood pressure intervention on systolic BP was -4.2mmHg. In addition, the general impact of the blood pressure intervention on diastolic BP was -2.4mmHg. The number of people accomplishing blood pressure objectives was enhanced when home blood pressure monitoring was utilized in comparison to typical blood pressure monitoring (Cappuccio, Kerry, Forbes, & Donald, 2004). A cross-sectional study was undertaken by Obara and others in 2008 on 2,363 critical hypertensive individuals in primary care settings in Japan to establish the impact of taking home blood pressure measurements on blood pressure control. Home blood pressure monitoring was linked to tremendously enhanced management of morning home blood pressures and evening home blood pressures and office blood pressures. People who were monitoring their blood pressure at home were determined to be considerably older, more probable to be from the male population, have a history of high blood pressure in their families, and tend to utilize considerable amounts of antihypertensive medications (Peters & Templin, 2008). Application to Practice Patients with the problem of high blood pressure suffer from chronic medical situation in which there is an elevation of blood pressure in the arteries. This needs the heart to function more than the usual to move blood through the blood vessels. In addition, the patient’s blood pressure is more than of normal human beings. Consequently, the high blood pressure causes a severe amount of pressure on the walls of the artery. This leads to an impulsive cellular collapse and tissue degeneration, which left untreated may lead to organ failure and death. For the purpose of this paper, blood pressure self-regulation is presumed to be the uninterrupted monitoring, assessing, and reinforcement of the patient’s behavior linked to blood pressure control (Fahey, Schroeder, & Ebrahaim, 2006). There a variety of interventions strategies that may act as probable solutions. Nurses may offer basic information on high blood pressure, connected dangers of uninhibited high blood pressure, and offering guidelines on techniques that may assist manage blood pressure. The role of nurses in directing or guiding is to give technological or correct information pertinent to the regulation of self care activity or the realization of self-care basics (Orem, 2001). Guiding is perceived to be a technique of helping a patient when he has to pursue a course of action or make a decision. Guidance necessitates that the nurse and patient be in regular communication with one another. Guiding is seen as the nurses’ duty in assessing blood pressure. The nurse has the ability to provide support and encouragement to the patient for him to preserve or initiate performance of an activity, conceptualize a situation or make a decision. There are several outcomes that may arise from the application of this theory to the High blood pressure problem. Monitoring the situation helps the patient bring their present pattern of behavior to conscious awareness. This permits them to posses extra capacity to gain new behavior or skills, contemplate their needs, and design their self-care. Also, a number of researches have established that self-blood pressure monitoring enhances blood pressure control. It is also possible that people who set specified, time limited and difficult objectives and then monitor their advancement are largely successful in attaining their objectives. Finally, the setting of objectives may help the patient lower blood pressure (Orem, 2001). Alternate Theory The Social Constructionist theory may also guide practice in an identical condition. This theory originates from Berger and Luckmann’s phenomenological approach. They assert that daily facts are innovatively generated by people and are meant for realistic problems. Therefore, details are developed through social associations and the interpretation of these details by individuals. In addition, the social constructionist theory asserts that groups and people develop their individual understanding of facts, and that awareness itself is a consequence of social dynamics. This theory incorporates a variety of dissimilar sociological models, but all the models concentrate on the way individuals make sense of their bodies and bodily concerns (Gergen, 2009). The social construction of suffering from high blood pressure deals with concerns such as the way the high blood pressure patients manages the way in which they divulge information concerning their condition and the lifestyle adjustments these patients will have to establish so as to deal with the high blood pressure. This theory is relevant because the beliefs and ideas high blood pressure patients hold about their health condition will determine the forms of health interventions that will be adopted by the doctors, nurses, or other health professionals. Conclusion One of the most widespread manners theory has been systematized in practice is in the nursing course of examining appraisal information. Nevertheless, regardless of nursing theories, people in the nursing profession will persist to show a caring reaction to the troubled and sick. If this may be proven to be accurate, then it may be argued that nurses are carrying out their responsibilities without the acquaintance of theories and that theory is not relevant. Nonetheless, practice and theory are connected, and if nursing is to continue to advance, the notion of theory should be taken in hand. Also, if nursing theory is not able to promote the advancement of nursing, it will continue to progress in the path of different subjects, for example, medicine. Because of the varied nature of patients and nurses, it appears improbable that nursing will ever get to the prototype point. Consequently, it may be time that practice-based and academic nurses recognize that a single theory does not possess the capacity to explain the whole nursing phenomenon and its practices. Therefore, if theory is supposed to promote practice, it should be developed considerately with individuals who are involved in nursing. References Anderson, E., Winett, R., & Wojcik, J. (2007). Self-regulation, self-efficacy, outcome expectations and social support: social cognitive theory and nutrition behavior. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 34(3), 304-312. Cappuccio, F., Kerry, S., Forbes, L., & Donald, A. (2004). Blood pressure control by home monitoring: Meta-analysis of randomized trials. British Medical Journal, 329(7458), 145-159. Fahey, T., Schroeder, K., & Ebrahaim, S. (2006). Interventions used to improve control of blood pressure in patients with hypertension. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 4. Gergen, K. (2009). An invitation to social construction. Los Angeles: Sage. Orem, D. (2001). Nursing: Concepts of practice (6th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby Ozkahya. Peters, E., & Templin, T. (2008). Measuring blood pressure knowledge and self-care behaviors of African Americans. Research in Nursing and Health, 31, 543-552. Read More