The Importance of Nursing Theories in Nursing Education - Essay Example

The Importance of Nursing Theories in Nursing Education and # Introduction While nurses have cared for the wounded and ill as a vocation since the late 1800s, it was not until the mid-1900s that nursing education and a more professional development led to a search for theories that would accommodate how nurses worked with their patients (Alligood, 2014). The education for nurses also moved into the college and university setting, allowing for greater personal development through degreed programs. Additionally, nursing theories were developed in regards to how a patient was observed and interviewed, taking in a more encompassing process of the patient’s environment, socio-economic surroundings, and researching the available information to find ways to help the patient achieve optimal health again. The nursing educator, my chosen field of practice, is the greatest disseminator of the required information that helps student nurses correctly learn theories, utilize them in case studies, and to conduct appropriate research to find the right answers to the patient’s problems. The theory of social cognition and metacognition provides an excellent process in education by which students learn the concepts of theories through examining of one’s own cognition or understanding of concepts as relates to how they think and feel. This is achieved through role playing, case studies, and games that provide an educational informative outcome (Hadi, Hamid, Abbas, Eskander, & Sima, 2013). This provides a social cognition opportunity to play the patient (‘walk in his shoes’), the Human Patient Simulation, and to also have students examine what they experience (metacognition) in the other side of nurse role playing. Section One The nursing environment today, allows for quick, in-depth research and analysis of cases from medical databases all over the world, including research studies that have found solutions to various health problems under various conditions, and with specific samples of the population (Alligood, 2014). Much of this information can be found through hospital computer access and through palm-held devices which, with the proper method of search parameters, can provide nurses with quick results and answers to the questions being asked during the search. Informatics is one field of nursing which has benefited nurses greatly, as nurse researchers assist in the latest methods of finding and recording information for others to access as well. In nursing education, the nursing educator provides the means and instruction to all nursing students to understand not only the nursing field in general, but the utilizations of various theories as part of the daily cases studies done on patients, and also showing how to use technology in database research to find answers. Nursing is now considered not just a disciplined-based profession, but a scientific one as well. In the 1980s, the nursing field consisted of the nursing practice, administration, education, research, and a continuous process of theory development to further the nursing profession to higher levels in each of these sectors. This also united the above nursing models under a metaparadigm of the patient as person, environment, health, and nursing concept infrastructure of nursing as a discipline ((Alligood, 2014, p.4). As a consequence, all nursing practice and scientific research utilizes a theory (even two or three in case work) as a basis to discover information and properly categorize it. The discipline relies on theory in order for further development to continue. Our patients are direct recipients of the advancements in research, information dissemination, and the education provided to nurses who are trained to use theories as part of their nursing administrations to the patient to help achieve wellness as effectively as possible. Section Two In the theory of social cognition and metacognition, the concepts are that students actively engage in learning concepts of theories, rather than sitting through lectures or reading textbooks to learn the theories. As a nursing educator, I would be concerned with teaching all the theories, but I would be utilizing this theory to educate students in order for them to be more interested and better motivated in retaining the information effectively (Hadi et al., 2013). The social cognition concept involves interactions with others (patients), whereas metacognition applies more to the internal awareness of intelligent understanding and emotions that arise from such interactions (Veenman, Van Hout-Wolters, & Afflerback, 2006). As Veenman et al. (2006) points out, there can be some drawbacks, particularly when dealing with different age groups, although this is not so likely to happen in a college class. Yet, some students may have different cultural backgrounds and this could lead to some difficulties in comprehension of the activity (Veenman et al., 2006). Self-regulation is also a factor, with some presenting it as being subordinate component to metacognition, while other believe it is superordinate to metacognition. In other words, does self-regulation occur because metacognition of the issue already exists, or does metacognition occur because of the results of metacognition? However, some of the benefits in the concepts of this theory are: active learning scenarios; effective retention of theory concepts through entertainment/fun experience; learning without risk; increases emotional and cognitive learning skills; enhances problem-solving skills; and bolsters confidence and fosters advanced knowledge. The theory of social cognition and metacognition can also be applied in any of the nursing models of practice, administration, research, and education (Hadi et al., 2013; Veenman et al., 2006). Section Three The theory of social cognition and metacognition can apply to all parts of the nursing areas: nursing leadership, nursing education, nursing informatics, and health policy (Hadi et al., 2013; Veenman et al., 2006). In a nursing leadership situation, when I have been put in charge of instituting a new process of educating the students on how to use a new search engine to access a database, I have first worked with some of my cohorts to work out where there may be problems. In this example, informatics and nursing education are also included with this leadership example. In a recent new add-on to our database system, the instructions given by the creator of the new search engine seemed fairly forthright in how to ask for information. However, when I changed the parameters of the search because of a unique problem I had with a patient, I had to figure out on my own how to make the new search work. My cohorts also tried different searches on their own, and encountered the same situation. Notes were made and given to the search engine creator, who was able to implement a new fix for the problems we had. This helped our administration, myself in nursing education on how to teach the students to use this search engine, and also helped the informatics division, who would also be using this fairly prolifically. In another example of this theory of social cognition and metacognition, I worked up a scenario for my class, where a ‘patient’ was very grumpy and verbally abusive. My goal was to get the students to relax and not take it personally. Rather, the students had to find ways to soothe the ‘patient’ to the point where he was more relaxed and compliant, so he would listen to the solutions we had for his health problem. This is actually a common occurrence in nursing practice and it is important for students to feel what the patient is going through, especially if there is pain involved, which might be causing the negative behavior. Social cognition and metacognition theory is very valuable in teaching these students how to cope with negative situations. Section Four There are plenty of very valuable nursing theories available to be used in the four components of the nursing industry. However, as I am a nursing educator, it was important to find a theory that encompassed the whole package, as I teach the whole package. The theory of social cognition and metacognition is important as it deals with the patient and the student, presenting an ideal opportunity for examining one’s internal emotions and reactions to how role-playing, for example, may cause problems if not dealt with ahead of time. Having empathy for the patient is an important part of nursing, and I like to teach that there is much more to the patient/case than the outer picture. Learning to empathize with patients is an important part of nursing in a clinical situation, for example, and learning how to self-regulate emotions and reactions, is also important in achieving a successful outcome to both the patient (the most important person) and the nurse, as a professional. Resources Alligood, M.R. (2014). Nursing theorists and their work (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby. Hadi, H., Hamid, H., Abbas, D., Eskandar, F-A, & Sima, M. (2013). Simulation utilization in nursing education. International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences (IRJABS), 7(9), 554-557. http://www.irjabs.com/files_site/paperlist/r_1983_131228184617.pdf. Veenman, M.V.J., Van Hout-Wolters, B.H.A.M., & Afflerbach, P. (2006). Metacognition and learning: Conceptual and methodological considerations. Metacognition Learning, 1, 3-14. http://www.denken-horen-bouwen.com/files/Metacognition_and_Learning.pdf. Read More