Nursing Blog

The 4 Metaparadigms in Nursing as defined by Patricia Benner: Nursing Patricia Benner described nursing as an “enabling condition of connection and concern” (Marriner-Tomey, 1989, p192) which shows a high level of emotional involvement in the nurse-client relationship. She viewed nursing practice as the care and study of the lived experience of health, illness, and disease and the relationships among these three elements. Person Benner stated that a “self-interpreting being, that is, the person does not come into the world predefined but gets defined in the course of living a life. A person also has… an effortless and non-reflective understanding of the self in the world. The person is viewed as a participant in common meanings.” (Tomey, 2002 p173) Benner believed that there are significant aspects that make up a person. She had conceptualized the major aspects of understanding that the person must deal as: The role of the situation The role of the body. The role of personal concerns.

Dorothy Johnson believes that each individual has a focusing and repeating ways of acting which covers a behavioral system distinct to that individual. These actions or behaviors form outstanding thoughts- out and included functional unit that determines and defines the relations between the person and his environment and establishes the bond of the person to the object,events, and circumstances in his environment. These behaviors are logical, fixed, predicatable and adequately secure and persistent to be satisfying to depiction and clarification. Johnsons identifies seven subsystems within the Behavioral System Model. These subsystems were originally in Johnson’s 1968 paper presented at Vanderbilt University. The seven subsystems are considered to be interrelated, thus changes in one subsystem affect all the subsystem. Seven Behavioral Subsystems The Attachment or Affiliative Subsystem is well-known as the earliest response system to expand in the individual. The most favorable functi

Dorothy Johnson biography: Life story of the nursing theorist of Behavioral System Model Dorothy Johnson was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1919. She was the youngest in a family of seven. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, and her Masters in Public Health from Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. She began publishing her ideas about nursing soon after graduation from Vanderbilt. Most of her education career was in Pediatric Nursing at the University of California, Los Angeles. She withdrew from the academe as a Professor Emeritus at January 1, 1978. Dorothy Johnson has influenced nursing through her publications since the 1950′s. Through her career, Johnson has made her cause on the importance of Research-Based Knowledge about the effect of nursing care on clients. She was an early advocate of Nursing as a Science as well as an Art. She also assumed that nursing had a body of Knowledge reflecting both the sci

Virginia Henderson’s Need Theory Henderson’s Theory Background Henderson’s concept of nursing was derived form her practice and education therefore, her work is inductive. She called her definition of nursing her “concept” (Henderson1991) Although her major clinical experiences were in medical-surgical hospitals, she worked as a visiting nurse in New York City. This experience enlarges Henderson’s view to recognize the importance of increasing the patient’s independence so that progress after hospitalization would not be delayed (Henderson,1991) Virginia Henderson defined nursing as “assisting individuals to gain independence in relation to the performance of activities contributing to health or its recovery” (Henderson, 1966, p. 15). She was one of the first nurses to point out that nursing does not consist of merely following physician’s orders. She categorized nursing activities into 14 components, based on human needs. She described the nurse’s role as substitutive (doing for the p

1897-1996 Army School of Nursing, Washington, D.C., 1921 First full-time nursing instructor in Virginia Recipient of the Virginia Historical Nurse Leader Award Member of the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing Authored one of the most widely used definitions of nursing Proposed plan to create districts within the Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia (now Virginia Nurses Association) Virginia Avenel Henderson's national and international achievements made her the quintessential nurse of the twentieth century. Her professional career was launched in Virginia where she served as the first full-time nursing instructor at Norfolk Protestant School of Nursing and took an active role in the state nurses association. A pioneer nurse educator, Henderson was instrumental in pushing for the inclusion of psychiatric nursing in educational programs in Virginia. "Henderson through her efforts as an author, researcher,

Isabel Adams Hampton Robb (1860–1910) was one of the founders of modern American nursing theory and one of the most important leaders in the history of nursing. She graduated from the Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1883. After gaining experience working as a nurse in Rome she traveled back to the United States to take a position as superintendent of nursing at the Cook County Hospital nursing school in Chicago. In her time as head of the nursing program there she implemented an array of reforms that set standards for nursing education. Most of these standards are still followed today. One of her most notable contributions to the system of nursing education was the implementation of a grading policy for nursing students. Students would need to prove their competency in order to receive qualifications. In 1889 she was appointed head of the new Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, where she continued to suggest reforms, participated in teaching, and published the text Nursing

Product Description The painless way to master medical-surgical nursing Need to learn the complexities of medical-surgical nursing but find yourself looking for some anesthesia after perusing thick textbooks? Here's your remedy! This easy-to-follow guide delivers the material with surgical precision. Medical-Surgical Nursing Demystified features a full chapter for each system--cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, hematologic, nervous, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, endocrine, genitourinary, and integumentary. You'll find a description of how the system functions, signs and symptoms of diseases and conditions, diagnostic tests, and treatment options. Perioperative preparation and pain management are also covered. Filled with key terms to help you to remember important concepts, and complete with end-of-chapter NCLEX-style quizzes to test your knowledge, this book will teach you the fundamentals of medical-surgical nursing in no time at all. This fast and easy guide offers: L

From Publishers Weekly In this useful home healthcare guide, Carroll offers the insight of a nurse to help readers understand and treat common medical conditions such as skin rashes and joint pains. Rather than following the general practice of organizing a self-care guide around specific diagnoses-which, she argues, makes such guides "hard to use unless you can diagnose yourself correctly first"-she lists the topics by symptoms, starting with the most common medical complaint: headaches. She then works through topics like eye irritation, toothaches, constipation and dizziness. In each section, she explains what the symptoms look and feel like, answers FAQs and decisively informs readers when the symptoms might be serious enough to warrant a call to a healthcare pro or a trip to the emergency room. The book also includes information on dealing with injuries like sprains and cuts, choosing and using medications, fighting through the difficulties of the healthcare system and ha

Review “Tilda Shalof’s A Nurse’s Story is the first time the work of nurses has been documented in print in Canada in such an honest, no-holds-barred account. . . . Shalof has seen it all, and writes about it, too.” –The Calgary Herald “But her book isn’t a doom-and-gloom account of overworked nurses. Interspersed with tales of tragedy are accounts of the funny, often bizarre events that transpire on an ICU.” Canadian Press “A compelling book laced with humour.” –Times & Transcript “There are genuinely heart-rending, disturbing and thought-provoking stories to be found in the pages of A Nurse’s Story. If this book doesn’t give you pause, you’re made of stone.” –Edmonton Journal “In a post-SARS world where nurses are finally being recognized for the heroes they always were, A Nurse’s Story is the best-seller no one can put down.” –Montreal Gazette “This is a difficult book. Its content is difficult. Its tone is difficult. But it is also difficult to put down, so compelling and beaut