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Colley S (2003) Nursing theory: its importance to practice. Nursing Standard. 17, 46, 33-37.
Date of acceptance: May 9 2003.
Abstract
Background Nursing theory should provide the principles that underpin practice and help to generate further nursing knowledge. However, a lack of agreement in the professional literature on nursing theory confuses nurses and has caused many to dismiss nursing theory as irrelevant to practice. This article aims to identify why nursing theory is important in practice.
Conclusion By giving nurses a sense of identity, nursing theory can help patients, managers and other healthcare professionals to recognise the unique contribution that nurses make to the healthcare service (Draper 1990). Providing a definition of nursing theory also helps nurses to understand their purpose and role in the healthcare setting.
Key words
* Education: theory and philosophy
* Models and theories
* Nursing: models
These key words are based on the subject headings from the British Nursing Index. This article has been subject to double-blind review.
THERE ARE constant arguments surrounding nursing theory and what constitutes nursing knowledge, yet no definitive conclusions have been reached. Lack of agreement in the professional literature serves to confuse nurses and has caused many to dismiss nursing theory as long-winded and irrelevant to everyday practice.
Ideally, nursing theory should provide the principles that underpin practice. In terms of traditional science, a theory can be described as a set of established statements or rules that are able to be tested (Hardy 1978). Historically, nursing theory has been based around and developed alongside medical knowledge and theory. However, in the 1950s there was a consensus among nursing scholars that the discipline needed to validate itself through the production of its own scientifically tested body of knowledge (Newman 1972).
Herein lay - and still lies - the main discrepancy in nursing theory. Many nurses argue that nursing existed well before the inception of the concept of nursing theory and continues to exist despite many nurses knowing little about nursing theory. If nursing theory existed in the same terms as traditional science, then it would be impossible for nurses to practise without an understanding of nursing theory. Because of the diverse nature of nursing and its lack of palpable end-product, it is difficult to test...