NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Sample Answer for NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice Included After Question

While the focus of this course is nursing theory, some nurses say that theory has no role in clinical practice.  What are your thoughts? Does nursing theory have a role in clinical practice? How would you use nursing theory to improve or evaluate the quality of clinical practice?  Be sure to include an example that demonstrates your thoughts.  Don’t forget to include a scholarly reference! 

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A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice 

Nursing theory has an important role in clinical practice. Theory has been recognized as the tool to making our practice a “rational knowledge based science” (Mao, 2015, p. 13). I feel that many people feel that theory has no place in clinical practice because of the abstract ideas and terminology that is involved. Mao (2015) gives the example of the nurse practitioner who’s main focus is curing rather than caring, while most theory is centered in caring as the primary nursing goal. “Currently, there is an explosion on the number of nursing theories, but not the usage of nursing theory” (Mao, 2015, p. 13). 

However, I feel that theory is at the base of clinical practice. Every intervention that we perform as nurses is based in theory. You may not actively think to yourself, “today I am applying Orem’s theory of Self Care to my practice,” but you are still educating your new onset diabetic patient on insulin administration. I think that taking time to understand and simplify theory would make it easier to use it to improve clinical practice. For example, Martha Rogers’ theory the Science of Unitary Human Beings sounds pretty abstract when you read about it. It talks about energy fields and uses big words like resonance and helicy (Rahim, 2016). However, at its core the theory is just talking about the patient and their relationship to their environment. The patient and their environment are two things that are constantly interacting with one another and affecting one another (Rahim, 2016). We apply this idea to nursing all of the time. We are taught in nursing school to look at our patients holistically and assess all of the factors that could be affecting their health.  When I receive a patient I am constantly assessing their family dynamic. I am thinking about what their home situation is like and what help they will need at discharge. I am taking into account the hospital environment and its affect on them. Finally, I am taking into account their illness and how it is affecting their reaction to the hospital environment. At no point in my day am I going to think to myself that I am applying Mary Rogers’ theory, but I am applying it because my training as a nurse was based upon it. I think that the argument that theory does not apply to real life practice exists just because there needs to be an effort to simplify it and realize that it is already occurring in our everyday practice.  

References 

Mao, A. (2015). The gap of nursing theory and nursing practice: is it too wide to bridge? Macau Journal of Nursing, 14(1), 13-20. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=31&sid=fd5498a1-42f5-4660-88a2-6b5fee7ebaaf%40sessionmgr120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=ccm&AN=113930388 (Links to an external site.) 

Rahim, L. (2016). Comparison between two nursing theories: Rogers and Leddy. Journal on Nursing, 6(1), 1-5. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=472994c4-62a3-42ca-94e5-95386a361761%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=116359098&db=ccm

NR 501 Week 4 Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice
NR 501 Week 4 Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice
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A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Megan, outstanding contribution on the connection of theory to advanced clinical practice! 

I understand what you mean by not consciously applying the theory in a given encounter.  Once we are educated in nursing theories and we resonate with some in particular, the philosophy, viewpoint, actions, relationships described in the theories becomes integral with who we are and how we see the world and others in it. 

Great beginning to the week! 

A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

I agree with your perspective and discussion, theory is applied daily to every nursing action and procedure. We as nurses carry out nursing actions and procedures with the purpose of assisting patients in the recovery of health and or maintain a good health status with these theories as foundation. As you well explained we do not stop to think which theory we are applying, we just use then routinely and apply them as evidence base practice. Now to have current information on evidence based information we need to keep up to date with current and recent clinical practice research, one of the ways to do so, is by participating in clinical research or continuing education workshops. 

Evidence based practice is the current development in nursing practice that dictates excellence when carrying out a specific nursing action and or procedure, that promises assurance of optimal patient healthcare outcomes. A study undertaken by McKeon and McKeon (2015), define evidence based practice as the process in which clinical practice and nursing data are standardized into clinical decision-making. Once the application and utilization of clinical experience are used jointly with the most up to date information and best evidence available, nurses are able to provide and enhanced care for their patients and families. 

We can relate to Dorothea Orem’s self-care nursing theory, which is one of the grand nursing theories. This theory has emphasized that the client’s capacity to accomplish life-sustaining activities are indispensable to the patient’s well-being (Wong, Ip, Chio & Lam, 2015). 

According to Wong, Ip, Chio & Lam (2015) an individual begins and does self-care to preserve life, healthy functioning, and well-being. This individual must achieve selfcare intervention which is influenced by basic predisposing factors such as age, sex, developmental state, environmental factors, family system factors, sociocultural factors, health state, pattern of living, healthcare system factors and availability of resources. The patient’s capability to achieve or involve in self-care may be affected by  the abovenamed predisposing factors and therefore these self-care activities might need to be modified by the type of activity or even the quantity of these self-care activities.   

References 

McKeon, P. O., & Medina McKeon, J. M. (2015). Evidence-based practice or practice-based evidence: what’s in a name?. International Journal of Athletic Therapy & Training, 20(4), 1-4. DOI: 1-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/ijatt.2015-0055 (Links to an external site.) Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=2cef8dbd-7ff5-4058-835a-c39989924269%40sessionmgr4006 (Links to an external site.) 

 

Wong, C. L., Ip, W. Y., Choi, K. C., & Lam, L. W. (2015). Examining self-care behaviors and their associated factors among adolescent girls with dysmenorrhea: an application of orem’s self-care deficit nursing theory. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 47(3), 219-227. doi:10.1111/jnu.12134 

Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/docview/1678728778?accountid=147674 (Links to an external site.) 

A Sample Answer 4 For the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

It is so true that we must practice theory daily. I found that Orem’s theory of self-care is vital to the future as a nurse practitioner. Understanding the basic concepts of the nurse-patient relationship and how that affects the overall well-being of the client is imperative to successful care outcomes. In order to competently care for the client, you must have a holistic understanding of the client. The environmental, socio-economic barriers, support system, and even the client’s definition of healthy play vital roles in the care that we can provide. If the client does not understand the concept of well-being and or has an alternative definition of health there is little benefit to providing healthcare solutions for problems the client does not feel are problems. 

Education is key when using Orem’s self-care theory. Understanding the client’s educational level will provide an idea of what clinical decisions can and must be made.  When considering health promotion it is important to treat each person as an individual and treat their needs based upon education and understanding. 

A Sample Answer 5 For the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Nursing theory plays a huge role in our clinical practice. Nursing theories, I believe, are designed to provide suggestions on how to improve clinical practice. Nursing theories are ongoing and continue throughout the years and stimulate reflections and improvements that happen in the clinical practice. Nursing theories are models that act as the main foundation for our nursing practice. Nursing theories show the importance of caring behaviors, reflecting back all the way to the early 1800’s, and are significant to improving patient outcomes in our practice. 

They identify both the strengths of our practice, and also the weak areas that need development. Nursing theories raise awareness of faculty and our nurse leaders and theorists by going further in-depth with metaparadigms. I believe nursing theories overall improve the quality of our clinical practice by improving patient care in the past, present, and future. Nursing theories are our calls to actions to better ourselves, our profession, and our patients. (Duffy, 2009). 

Reference 

Duffy, J. R. (2009). Quality caring in nursing: applying theory to clinical practice, education andleadership. New York, NY: Springer 

A Sample Answer 6 For the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Hailey, interesting idea that nursing theories can help us identify gaps in nursing practice.  Nursing theories tend to express the ideal in nursing. 

 class,can you think of examples in advanced clinical practice when a nursing theory may help identify a gap or a problem in terms of how advance practice is approached? 

An example in our advanced clinical practice when a nursing theory identifies a gap or a problem in terms of how advance practice is approached includes the gap between theory itself and putting it into practice. Often times healthcare personnel read about theories, they study them, know what they are about, but do not put them into practice. They have theories go in one ear and out the other.  

The term theory is defined as a set of principles or statements that are utilized to explain a group of facts, it is often tested and widely accepted in the nursing profession. The term practice is an act or process of completing a task or an action. These two terms often times appear to be opposite of each other, but in reality you must apply theories into practice in order to promote health and improve patient outcomes. Nursing is defined as caring for a person in a variety of health related scenarios (Ajani et al., 2011). 

This type of caring involves teaching and education in regards to preventing illness. With this type of caring, nurses play a key role in health promotion and utilization. If all nurses are placed with a competence in theory and utilize theories in their practice, they will then maintain a proper balance between theory and practice and promote an even higher standard of health. Unfortunately, not all nurses are placed with a competence in theory, and the ones that are placed with a competence, do not put theories in their practice. This is where the gap in advanced-practice nursing comes into effect (Ajani et al., 2011). 

Reference: 

Ajani, K., & Moez, S. (2011, June 10). Gap between knowledge and practice in nursing. Retrieved January 23, 2018, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042811009426 

A Sample Answer 7 the Assignment: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Title: NR 501 Week 4: Connection Between Theory and Advanced Clinical Practice

Thank you for your additions and insights made to my response on this week’s discussion question, I appreciate your remarks and recommendations. 

According to Waller-Wise (20013) Virginia Henderson’s theory reveal a real and factual meaning of nursing care and explains where nursing care is precisely required. Nursing is mainly assisting individuals whether sick or in good health in the execution of those actions that contribute to health promotion, or health improvement that would be carried out by these individuals unassisted, once they have the required strength, readiness and knowledge. It is also the responsibility of nursing profession to assist individuals to be self-sufficient of such assistance as fast as the individual’s condition permits. 

 Nurses ought to have a clear understanding of the Virginia Henderson theory when giving care to patients. I personally believe this theory is like the back bone to the nursing profession. Once nurses undertake the nursing profession seriously, the need for the use and application of nursing theories on the daily nursing job becomes clearer. This theory, the Virginia Henderson’s theory, helps us as nurses to show compassion, and treat individuals with dignity. The use of this theory allows nurses to display the dedication the nursing profession requires to help in the recovery of the individual, so they can function in society in a good health status. 

According to Waller-Wise (20013) during the application of Henderson’s theory the health care provider is required to evaluate the individual’s needs on the 14 basic needs describe in this theory, which will assist in the provision of care. These basic needs mentioned above provide the framework for the practice of nursing. 

I endorse all nursing theories, and think they add a great deal to the nursing profession, and I would like to highlight that Virginia Henderson’s Theory is of crucial importance and its application is needed not only by nurses but also by all health care providers in order to make a positive impact on individuals with health impairment and unable to care for themselves. 

We as nurses benefit from all the contributions to the nursing profession that theorists have made, with improvements and additions that have positively contributed to the nursing profession and to the health outcome of patients and their families. In general, these theories also help to advance development of nursing as a profession. It is therefore crucial that nurses utilize and support their daily work on all nursing theories. It is important that nurses take into consideration these theories in each nursing procedure carried out to care for each patient and family, regardless of their health status sick or healthy. Using nursing theories as support to the nursing profession and during the daily nursing work, guarantees that nursing care is based on scientific principles which ensures and help to recover the individual’s health.