Nursing Care of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patient - Research Paper Example

Nursing knowledge seeks to derive and acquire a set of rules through explanatory theories leading to the production of critical analysis and thinking skills through which the professional nurse generate integrative understanding about the care she is required to deliver to any patient (Fawcett and Alligood, 2005). The main forms of knowledge that the nurses need to employ in practice are personal practical knowledge, knowledge of medical theoretical knowledge, knowledge about procedures that they need to participate, knowledge on the culture of the ward, and knowledge about how to reflect on the care provided to consolidate the experience and seek more knowledge.

However, academic or theoretical knowledge would also involve seeking evidence from research to inform, guide, and modify practice. Jenny and Loagn (1992) indicated that nurses knowledge also include the knowledge about their patients whom they care since they tend to identify and know the holistic dimensions of the person they care, different from their knowledge about their diseases. Melesis (2007) indicated that based on this knowledge, the nurses are concerned with their care which involves "hygiene, rest, exercise, sleep, nutrition, relief from pain, rehabilitation, and safety in the context of a patient’s daily life, state of health or illness, and their environment” (Melesis, 2007).

It has been argued that the current care systems based on a holistic approach tends to change the delivery of care by the nurses, and these would require new knowledge and ways of knowing. The traditional models of nursing knowledge and medical-model learning may be inadequate to suffice the needs of these clients. Sullivan-Marx (2006) has indicated continuous development and progress of nursing knowledge through experience from care scenarios (Youngblut and Brooten, 2001).