Please reply to the following posts. Each post needs at least 200 words. You can cite one source for each post.

Meegan M posted

Nursing theory is defined as, "a creative and rigorous structuring of ideas that project a tentative, purposeful, and systematic view of phenomena" (Nurse.org, n.d., para. 1). While this may seem abstract to someone who does not work in healthcare, it makes sense within the realm of professional practice. A nurse may not realize he or she is utilizing a nursing theory to guide patient care unless it is pointed out that most of what nurses do is guided by theory in the beginning. For example, Florence Nightingale created an Environment Theory which specified her belief that patients are influenced by their environment and items within it. For instance, one environmental factor she identified was cleanliness of the area (Current Nursing, 2020). As nurses, when we enter the room or the home of a patient we somewhat subconsciously scan the area for potential risk factors related to patient safety such as clutter, cords, pets and throw rugs. Any one of these could lead to a fall so in this regard assessment of environmental cleanliness is theory which has evolved into practice. Environmental cleanliness is abstract, however fall risk is very real, and we know some causes, so we can act early to assist in protecting a patient from injury.

My specialty is hospice nursing so if I had to introduce a theory to guide our practice I would use the Humanistic Nursing Theory, specifically the “being-with” and “doing-with” portions. (Wu & Volker, 2012) As we move through the dying process with our patients companionship and presence are vital. While we do palliate symptoms with medications there is no way to palliate loneliness or educate someone out of feeling hopeless, so our presence becomes the comfort. To prove the efficacy of this theory I would invite other nurses to join volunteer partners at the bedside to show sometimes having a person nearby is the only comfort people need. Our ability to heal rests as much in our humanity as it does in our knowledge of nursing, medications and the dying process.

Nurse.org. (n.d.). What are nursing theories? 

Wu, H.-L., & Volker, D. L. (2012). Humanistic nursing theory: Application to hospice and palliative care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68(2), 471–479. 

Jill C Posted

A nursing theory is an important framework for nurses to work from each day. A balance between impossible and possible. Nursing theory is the “perfect world” scenario. If the world were perfect and patients were perfect, and medicine was perfect that is nursing theory. Provides the nurses with a goal to work towards. You want your patient to take their medicine, do their therapies and get better. As we know, patients are going to refuse some of their medications for one reason or another. Therapy is going to arrive during their nap time and the doctor will be too mean that day. Nurses need those goals to strive for even though we know in the back of our minds they are essentially unattainable. Nursing practice is the lines nurses must stay on while working within their theory. Keeping everything in balance.

In my nursing practice, as a clinic nurse, working with benign hematology patients, I would introduce the Orem’s Self-Care Theory. Assisting the patients to become independent and maintain self-care. In my practice, I am interacting with patients regularly who are adults, sometimes young adults, typically living on their own with or without families and usually in their careers. It is my duty to utilize the five actions needed to maintain the patients self-care.  Assisting initially in performing the activity such as making the appointment for the scan for them, then guiding in the activity by providing them with the number and advising on what to do next, providing physical or mental aid to complete the activity by writing it down in a message for them to refer to, providing them with a positive environment sincerely applauding them on completing the activity, and educating them throughout our time together on how to maintain those abilities. Those are things I do daily in my practice to ensure my patients do not become self-care deficit.

StudyCorgi. (2021, October 1). Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory in Nursing Practice.