Nursing Theory -- a Patient Centered Approach
In the opinion of this author and from personal experience, nursing has to be patient centered. It is the author's experience in years of working in the field that someone who stays in the profession inevitably must see nursing as not a job, but rather as a vocation or a calling. One must treat it with a reverence. In this way, the nursing professional imbues their work with a sacred fervor. Their nursing philosophy causes them to provide to their patients with exceptional patient-centered care because these clients are imbued by a higher power with rights. These professionals then place quality-caring relationships at the center of their practice and this results in a safe, healing and compassionate environment. In this way, the safety and well-being the patients and staff becomes important to them. They practice excellence in all that they do and provide respect for everyone (patients as well as staff) all of the time. This gives their practice a value and that would not otherwise be possible. Their knowledge development is constant and it is necessary for the nursing candidate to be engaged in a program of ongoing continuing nursing education (Allegrante, Moon, Auld & Gebbie, 2001, 1230) .
Conceptual frameworks or models such as Fawcett's are used to guide research studies, educational programs and nursing practices and to integrate philosophy and theory into practice. In Fawcett's model, evidence-based practice is the deliberate and critical use of theories about the health-related experiences of patients in order to guide actions that are associated with each step of the nursing process. These are composed of assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation. Based upon the above factors, this author values a conceptual-theoretical model that represents the belief that nursing needs to be a patient-centered profession. From the time of Florence Nightingale to the present, this has largely been the case. The matriarch of the profession introduced this value into the calling and the best practitioners of the craft elevate this methodology on high as well. In the Fawcett framework, evidence-based practice translates into theory-based...
The person-centered nursing framework focuses on delivering care by a range of activities and outcomes that are the results of the person-centered nursing regime. The relationship between the theoretical constructs demands that for the nurse be able to deliver person-centered outcomes, one must also take into account the prerequisites and then the care environment can be adjusted for providing effective care through the care processes. In this way, theory will meet practice and the provision of patient-centered care can be done like clockwork and according to plan (Cody, 2006, 6-7).
It is the opinion of this author that nursing is made up of the systematic care of individual patients of all types, ages, affiliations, families, groups and communities. The patients may be sick or well and in all types of settings. Nursing comprises the prevention of illnesses, promotion of health and the care of ill, dying and disabled people. Patient advocacy, the promotion of a safe hospital environment, participation in the shaping of health policy and in patient and health systems management, education and research are additionally nursing roles as well (Kane, 2003, 28).
One does not need to be a medical professional but merely a human being to realize that as primates and mammals, we value caring and tactile comfort. We even value this over necessities such as food and water. The proof that we are emotional animals is well established since the experiments of psychologist Harry Harlow where he showed that primates preferred tactile contact with soft monkey maniquins over sterile, nearby models that produced only nourishment (Harlow & Harlow, 1966, 248).
This nurse's central belief about the individual person is that the individual is the center of our practice. Western values and humanity itself provides us with a wealth of influence about the value of the individual. However, McCormack argues that good intentions are not sufficient to make sure that this permeates the profession. However, in the research literature, little attention has been paid to the concept of person-centered research practice. Rather, there is still a reliance on traditional 'ethical…
