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...

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...

Introduction Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) devised a theory in which he explained s six stages of moral development divided into three levels. Morality is the system one uses to decide what is right and wrong; how one’s conscience affects choices. Moral development refers to the capacity of the individual to act in accord with conscience and moral imperatives rather than egocentric values. Kholberg defines moral judjments "as judgments of value, as social judgments, and as judgments that oblige an individual to take action.” He was inspired by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and the American philosopher John Dewey. Moral development accross life span By the second year of life, “moral emotions” are emerged. By 36 months, most children demonstrate the internalization of parental standards. During the school years, the importance of rules and adhering to them become well defi ned. Moral dvelopment after adolescent period is complex and influenced by social factors. Kohlberg's The...

Nurse theorist Jean Watson was born in West Virginia and was educated at BSN, University of Colorado, 1964; MS, University of Colorado, 1966; PhD, University of Colorado, 1973. Dr. Jean Watson is Distinguished Professor of Nursing and holds an endowed Chair in Caring Science at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She is founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She previously served as Dean of Nursing at the University Health Sciences Center and is a Past President of the National League for Nursing. Dr. Watson has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing and psychiatric-mental health nursing and holds her PhD in educational psychology and counseling. She is a widely published author and recipient of several awards and honors, including an international Kellogg Fellowship in Australia, a Fulbright Research Award in Sweden and six (6) Honorary Doctoral Degrees, including 3 International Hono...