Range Theory Mid-Range Theory Middle Range Nursing

¶ … Range Theory

Mid-range theory

Middle Range Nursing Theorist: Rozzano Locsin

Biography/Education

Dr. Rozzano Locsin attained a PhD in nursing at the University of the Philippines in 1988. He is currently a tenured Professor of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University. Locsin has extensive experience in nursing research in a variety of nations: "Through the Fulbright Scholar Award, he developed the first Masters program in Nursing in Uganda while researching the phenomenon 'waiting-to-know' and the lived experiences of persons exposed to patients who died of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever" (Rozzano Locsin, 2011, Pro-Libraries). His current research interests focus on themes of technology and caring in nursing and "life transitions in human health" (Rozzano Locsin, 2011, Pro-Libraries). Locsin calls his mid-range theory the "technological competency as caring model."

Theory development: How the theorist came about to develop his/her theory

Locsin's theory arose because of the frustrations he perceived in nurses when they were coping with the technological demands of modern healthcare. Increasingly, nurses report feeling as if they are solely called upon to operate machinery. They feel this interferes with their ability to 'be with' the patient in a meaningful fashion (Locsin 2005: 3-4). Nurses feel as if the processes rather than the social and spiritual caring components of nursing have taken predominance. Locsin's technological competency as caring model mid-range theory arose as a way of viewing technology as a harmonious part of nursing practice (Parker & Smith 2010: 462). It attempted to address the nurse's need to give care in a medical environment increasingly dominated by technology and 'artificial' apparatus, such as life-support machine and prosthetics.

Meta-paradigm: The 4 elements of the meta-paradigm and the concepts of the theory: Person, health, environment and nursing

In the technological competency as caring model, persons are seen as whole and complete in themselves in the moment. The use of technology does not make people less human. Nurses do not have to make people whole through the nursing process -- the patients they treat are already whole. Technology can be used as a way of 'knowing' the person (Parker & Smith 201: 462). The purpose of nursing is to direct, sustain, attain, focus and maintain the person (Parker & Smith 201:469). Nurses' ways of knowing enable nurses to better understand the person. There are few fully 'natural' persons: a person is always complete, regardless of whatever medical enhancements and procedures they have undergone (Parker & Smith 2010: 462). Health is not defined as freedom from technological implements but as a state of being that may change in its definition over the course of the lifespan. Environment includes technology as well as 'natural' aspects of the world.

Clinical application: of the theory