Nursing Science - Essay Example

Introduction

Nursing science is a mixture of knowledge that is unique to nursing and knowledge that is borrowed from other disciplines. A theory is defined as a group of related concepts that propose actions that guide the nursing practice. Nursing theory, knowledge development, and conceptual models are important discussion points in the nursing profession. Some suggest that nursing research must develop nursing theories that are unique, while others believe that borrowed theories can be incorporated legitimately into the practice (Siva, 1986).

Unique theories

Unique theories have their origin in nursing science and have been developed with a focus on nursing. Their concepts, propositions, and definitions represent a methodical viewpoint and provide a framework for standardizing and organizing nursing actions. Recently, there has been a struggle to come up with unique theories in nursing and their contribution to clinical practice and the profession itself. While nursing knowledge is not unique, the perspective with which the knowledge is applied to the practice is unique. This can be defined and achieved through unique theories of nursing.

Florence Nightingale, a central figure in the history of nursing, was the first to conceptualize the intellectual domain of nursing science. In her seminal work Notes on Nursing: What it is and What is Not (Nightingale, 1860), she develops a unique theory of nursing, where she establishes the domain of nursing concern, which is independent of the physician’s domain. In developing this theory, she orients the nurses towards the environment of the patients, from the condition of their bandages to the layout of their sick rooms. Some more examples of unique nursing theories include Parse’s Theory of Human Becoming and Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory.

Shared theories

Shared theories from other disciplines such as sociological, behavioral, and biomedical sciences are theories that have been tested in nursing science though not entirely adopted. They, therefore, do not necessarily advance the practice of nursing. Some examples of shared theories in nursing include theories of social support, reasoned action, self-efficacy, and planned behavior, which have all been developed within the social psychology discipline (Paley, 2006). Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory, for instance, provides an appropriate framework for the evaluation of the impact of training programs done to improve nursing competence in palliative care. They are regarded as shared because of their testing in nursing situations.

Borrowed theory

These are theories that made use of other disciplines. As nursing science began to develop and evolve, theories from other disciplines for instance sociology and psychology became increasingly important in an attempt to be adopted to try and empirically describe, predict, or explain the nursing phenomena (Rogers, 1970). Nurses are, however, increasingly questioning the use of the borrowed theories on whether they are satisfactory or sufficient in their relation to nursing science as they were used to predict, describe, and explain. Examples of borrowed theories in nursing included, Maslow-Virginia Henderson Nursing Theory and Dreyfus model of skill acquisition.