NURSING THEORY 2015: OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health

Administration) Issue Guidelines to Improve Nurse

What is nursing theory?
Safety
-define, describe, predict, and explain the
2020 and Beyond: COVID Transforms Nursing as We
phenomenon of nursing.
Know It
The word nurse is derived from the Anglo-French
nurice and the Latin nutrica, both of which mean
nourish. -Nurses are not allowed to prescribe medication, but
in other country, they can prescribe medication.
 History of Nursing
-RA9173: Philippine Nursing Act of 2002
1853 to 1856 -Florence Nightingale served in the
Crimean War and set up a holistic system of nursing. -RA7164: The Philippine Nursing Act of 1991

1859 -Notes On Nursing by Florence Nightingale was Diagnosis:

published. It was one of the first nursing manuals
-NANDA
ever written.
-Only the doctors should diagnose a patient
1860 -The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing
was opened in St. Tomas Hospital in London. Mark as -if a nurse must diagnose a patient, it should be
the birth of modern nursing. based on a nurse’s diagnosis “to consider(disease)”

-This is where nursing schools start to sprout all over

the world.
 Historical Eras of Nursing
Historical Era Emphasis
Mid-1800’s -Nightingale recognized the unique focus
Curriculum era Courses included in nursing
of nursing and declared nursing knowledge as a
program.
distinct from medical knowledge.
Research era Role of nurses and what to
-Body of medical knowledge is different from body
research
of nursing knowledge.
Graduate era Carving out a role in health
care for master’s program.
1950’s -Development of nursing knowledge as a
Theory era Doctoral education flourished
guide in nursing practice.
with additional nursing
-Nursing knowledge is being practiced and used as a theories.
guide.
Theory utilization era Balanced between research
and practice for knowledge
development.
1960’s-1980’s -Nursing as a Science to Nursing as a
Profession
-Period of rapid growth for associate nursing  Significance of Nursing Theory
programs.
Significance for the Discipline
-standardized nursing programs
Discipline – a specific to academia and refers to
branch of education, a
department of learning, or a
1900’s, 2000’s – 2008 -Consensus Model for APRN
domain of knowledge.
Regulation: Licensure, Accreditation, Certification &
Education Significance of theory for nursing as a discipline:
2010 – The Institute for the Future of Nursing 1. University baccalaureate programs
released recommendations for improved health care. proliferated, master’s programs in nursing
(The Future of Nursing advocated for the removal of were developed, and the curricula began to
limits on nurses’ scope of practice.) be standardized through the accreditation
process.
 2. Attention to the importance of nursing
conceptualizations for the research process
and the role of a conceptual framework in the
purpose and design of research production of
science in nursing theoretical works also
began to publish.
3. Works began to be recognized for their
theoretical nature, such as Henderson,
nightingale, and etc.
4. New nursing doctoral programs were
beginning to open, and they reopened the
discussion of the nature of nursing science.
This becomes the first classic reference for
nursing as discipline.

 Significance of Nursing Theory

Profession – refers to a specialized field of practice
founded on the theoretical structure of the science
or knowledge of that discipline and accompanying
practice abilities.

Bixler and Bixler published a set of criteria tailored to

nursing in the American Journal of Nursing in 1959.
They stated that a profession:
>Utilizes in its practice a well-defined and well-
organized body of specialized knowledge that is on
the intellectual level of the higher learning.
>Constantly enlarges the body of knowledge it uses
and improves its techniques of education and service
by the use of scientific method.
>Entrusts the education of its practitioners to
institution of higher education.
>Applies its bodies of knowledge in practical services
that are vital to human and social welfare.
>Functions autonomously in the formulation of
professional policy and in the control of professional
activity thereby.
>Attracts individuals of intellectual and personal
qualities who exalt service above personal gain and
who recognizes their chosen occupation as a life
work.
>Strives to compensate its practitioners by providing
freedom of action, opportunity for continuous
professional growth.
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
INTRODUCTION
 EMPIRICISM
 Science – is a method for describing,
explaining, and predicting causes or
- The empiricist view is based on the
outcomes of interventions.
central idea that scientific knowledge can
 Scientific Activity – means, those activities
be derived only from sensory experience
leading to the systematic knowledge of the
(posteriori reasoning).
physical or material world, largely consisting
- Bacon believed that scientific truth was
of observation and experimentation.
discovered through generalizing observed
 Scientific activity has persisted because:
facts in the natural world.
 It has improved quality of life.
- The inductive method
 Has satisfied human needs for creative work. - The collection of facts precedes attempts
 A sense desire to understand the unknown. to formulate generalizations.
- The research-then-theory strategy.
- Example: formulating diagnosis.
SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE

 Means identifying nursing’s unique

knowledge the care of patients, families, and
communities.
 Nurses can conduct clinical and basic nursing
research to establish the scientific base for
the care of individuals, families, communities,
and populations.

HISTORICAL VIEWS OF THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

 To formalize the science of nursing, basic

questions must be considered:
 What is science, knowledge, and truth?
 What methods produce scientific knowledge?
 THESE ARE

Two Competing PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTTIVE

 Each is a type of epistemology or theory of

knowledge for understanding how to uncover
the answer to a question.
 RATIONALISM
- Rationalist epistemology emphasizes the
importance of a priori reasoning as the
appropriate method for advancing
knowledge.
- A priori reasoning utilizes deductive logic
by reasoning from the cause to an effect
or from a generalization to particular
instance.
 Theoretical assertions derived by deductive
reasoning are the subjected to experimental
testing to corroborate the theory.
 This approach is theory-then-research
strategy.