Kings Theory of Goal Attainment - Research Paper Example

King’s The Theory of Goal Attainment Imogene King developed the goal attainment theory in the early 1960s. The theory describes the dynamics of the interpersonal relationship that lead to the growth of patient towards attaining the certain goals in life (Meleis, 2011). The main concerns of the theory are the factors that are likely to affect the attainment of desired goals of patients’ growth among these factors are roles of different players, space, stress, and time. King’s model is divided into three main systems of interactions including interpersonal, personal, and social systems (Parker et al., 1990). These systems often apply different and distinctive aspects and concepts. For instance, the personal system is pegged on self, perceptions, growth and development space, time, body and image. On the other hand, the interpersonal systems apply interaction, transaction, role, communication, and stress concepts while social system involves organization, power, status, authority, status, and decision-making concepts. Notably, these concepts are applied in the nursing profession; however, with their advantages to success in the nursing practice, the theory and its concepts has some of its challenges in application (George, 2010). King just like other professionals pursued nursing career with the aim of improving the health conditions of the patients. Towards attaining his goals, she prompted means through which patients’ improvement goals can be attained. Moreover, through her theory she provide stepped through which her desired goals can be approved. In the Theory of Goal Attendance, Imogene King focuses on the processes that are likely to improve nurse patient relationship. Her main aim was to help nurses with techniques of meeting their health goals to patients. King was born on 30 January 1923, in West Point, Iowa. She attained her nursing diploma in 1945 from St. Johns Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri. She later earned Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1948 from St. Louis University. Later in 1957, she completed her Masters of Science in Nursing from the St. Louis University. In 1961, she earned doctoral degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. Imogene King died on 24 December 2007 (George, 2010). In King’s career life, between 1966 and 1968, she was an assistant Chief of Research Grants Branch. During this period, she work for the Nursing Division in Washington, D.C. where she worked under Dr. Jessie Scott. From the year 1968 and 1972, she served as the director of the Ohio State University School of Nursing. Between the year 1961 and 1966 she was an associate professor and between 1871 and 190, she became a professor at Loyola University in Chicago (Meleis, 2011). She also served a professor between 1980 and 1990 at the College of Nursing in Tampa, which is a component of the University of South Florida. This where she served last after which she retired as a professor Emeritus. However, during her active career, King had an active membership with the District IV Florida Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International, and the American Nurses Association(Parker, et al. 1990). King also followed into the American Association of Nursing. Reading from her career and profession, King had enough experience and expertise to contribute academically and by practice to the nursing profession. Some of her contributions in nursing profession include her works including: “Theory for nursing that engulfed systems, process, concepts; Theory for nursing that involves systems, processes, and concepts; The language of nursing theory and Metatheory; Toward a Theory for nursing: General Concepts of Human Behaviour; and Curriculum and Instruction in Nursing: Concept and Process” (George, 2010). The above contributions are additional to her theory of goal attainment that defines mainly actions, interactions, and reactions to the nursing processes. These processes are intended to improve the interaction between the nurses and their patients. That is, the nurses must use the information obtained from their patients towards improving the nursing situations. King’s contribution focuses on the care for patients. Along her contribution, other professionals in the nursing field also wrote King’s concepts in the Theory of Goal attainment. Some of the work includes the 2006 Kim and Kollak’s nursing theories in their book “Nursing Theories: Conceptual and Philosophical foundation.” This book explores mainly the concepts contribute by nursing theories; it examines the design and their applicability in the nursing profession(George, 2010). Additionally, Martha Raile Alligood in her 2013 book, Nursing Theorist and their work, she note the importance of different theorists and their work. In her contribution, Alligood noted the significance, applicability, and the challenges of King’s theory of attainment. Nonetheless, she attributed to vital aspects of the theory that have improved the nursing profession (Meleis, 2011). The Theory of Goal Attainment has numerous propositions or the concerns that address in line with problems in the nursing profession. Some of the concerns include the interaction accuracy between nurses and patients (In Alligood, 2014). According to the Theory, this is major concern since if there are inaccuracies in the information relayed to the nurse by the patient, then the nurses my end up giving wrong care to the patient. To attain right and accurate information from the patient, the theory advocates effective and elaborate interaction between the nurses and the patient. It notes that high level and efficiency of interaction between the nurses and patients will lead to the achieving the intended goals and objectives of the care (Parker et al., 1990). The formulation of the theory was also prompted by the concern that patients should be satisfied with the services offered to them. On the other hand, nurses should also be satisfied with the services that offer to the patients; therefore, there was a need to have guidelines that lead to these satisfactions; hence, the theory. Additionally, the theory was concern with enhancement of the growth and development in the interactions between nurses and patients. The theory notes that achieving the desire growth and development requires formulation role performance and role expectations in their transactions with the patients (George, 2010). Generally, this theory advocated that nurses should develop and grow their knowledge that they would have a unique and appropriate communication mechanism with patient. According the theory, it is only such special knowledge that nurses will formulate and attain the mutual goals that aim at improving health care services to patient (In Alligood, 2014). Therefore, is worth noting that the King’s theory is based on deductive reasoning where nurses are expected to use the existing information (that should be extracted from patients effectively) to draw effective and helpful conclusion that lead them to setting mutual goals. In provide guide to goal attainment within the nursing profession, the Goal attainment theory model had numerous assumptions. The theory assumed that that focus of the nurses should be in their care to patients or human being (George, 2010). The theory also assumed that the goal of nurses is to provide health care services to both individuals and groups. Kings also assumed that human being are open systems (Meleis, 2011); hence, they were interacting with the environment constantly. Moreover, King applied the nursing process basic assumption that nurses often set goals mutually that enables them to communicate information with their patients. King’s concepts are pegged on the rational that human beings are sentimental and rational; therefore, they have ability to think, feel, perceive, choose, and set goals as well as deduce a means through which they achieve such goals and make conclusive and effective decisions based on the set parameters of the set goals (In Alligood, 2014). Additionally, the King’s concepts are prompted on the fact that those human beings have three fundamental needs that include the need for sufficient health information; the need to seek health care towards preventing illness; and the need of care when a person cannot take care of him/herself. Notably, King’s concerns or concepts on which she build her theory are interrelated in that they all lead to proper help care systems (Parker et al., 1990). Furthermore, all these concepts are stressing on the fact that information is significant for quality health care; hence, she urges nurses to have proper mechanisms through which they can extract such or adequate information from patients. According to the theory, quality information can only be obtained from the patient through effective and fruitful interaction between nurses and patients. The desired interaction can be attained by creating excellent environment for interaction (In Alligood, 2014). Therefore, according to the theory, it is significant for the nurses to adjust the external and internal environmental stressors. These adjustments can only be attained by using the right and optimum resources. In other words, nurses should obtained maximum environmental information about the patient including the patients’ background. According to the theory of goal attainment, nursing is a process of action that involves interaction and reaction through which nurses and patient share information in a nursing situation (Parker et al., 1990). The theory of Attainment of goals has applied all the metaparadigm concepts including humans, environment, health, and nursing practice. Human concept forms the basis of the theory that advocates for caring of people (Meleis, 2011). However, before caring start, the theory requires nurses to understand the environment that leads to the caring needs. In other words, according to the theory, only through appropriate and adequate information about the patients’ environment that effective nursing practice can yield to healthy caring (In Alligood, 2014). Thus, it is necessary for the nurses to consider biological, psychological, sociological, spiritual, and intellectual facets of human beings before they start caring for them since all these aspects usually affect health of a human being. Nurses are also expected to take action in handing human behavioral that may be prompted by human’s physical and mental actions. Therefore, according to King, nurses should create goals to help patients to improve their health; hence, they function in their other roles (Parker et al., 1990). Nurses are expected to promote, maintain, and restore health as well as care for the sick, dying, and injured. On the other hand, the professional nurses are mandated with interpreting information to help in nursing processes that include planning, implementing, and evaluating the goals and objective of nursing care. The Theory of Attainment of Goals is clear and organized in discussing how nurses can set goals and have clear framework of attaining such goals towards helping improving the health of patient. The theory clearly articulate procedure nurses should adopt or apply to ensure they have set right goals to their nursing objectives. For instance, the theory advocates for understanding of both internal and external environment of the patients since through such information that nurses can set effective goals towards proper health care services to patients (In Alligood, 2014). Additionally, the theory adds that proper and adequate information can only be obtained from patients when nurses form good relationship with patient. In other words, the theory notes that there are needs for nurses to have good relationship with their patient. Finally, the advocate that nurses must have and maintain healthy individual roles in caring for their patients (Parker et al., 1990). Moreover, they must use their nurse-patient relationship and knowledge to assess patients and make diagnosis followed by interventions of helping patients out of their medical situations. After the nurses have conducting their nursing practices, the theory requires them to evaluate their patients to determine if they have attained their set goals. Application of Theory of Attainment in the Nursing Nurses apply the concepts of the theory in assessing the patients (Parker et al., 1990). Moreover, they use the concepts help them build special knowledge and skills that they merge with the patients’ knowledge of self to help in addressing the medical concerns of the patient. As a the theoretical concept of theory of goal attainment, nurses often collect data during the assessment period, that they use in formulating nursing goals to the specific patient’s situation. It should be noted that the goals are formulated based on the interpretation of collected data (In Alligood, 2014). The nurses often verify the data for accurate perception, interaction, and transaction. The theory also help the nurses in planning for the necessary and vital interventions for setting goals, and thinking of the necessary steps to apply in attaining such goals, and making decision (Meleis, 2011). The theory encourages the participation of the patients during goal setting and decision-making, concepts that have been incorporated in the nursing practices. In other words, the Goal Attainment Theory has made the nursing processes to be concept oriented, a phenomenon that has improved nursing services to patients. References George, J. B. (2010). Nursing theories. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. In Alligood, M. R. (2014). Nursing theorists and their work. Meleis, A. I. (2011). Theoretical nursing: Development and progress. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Parker, M. E., South Florida Nursing Theorist Conference, & South Florida Nursing Theorist Conference. (1990). Nursing theories in practice. New York, N.Y: National League for Nursing. Read More