Nursing History, Theories and Conceptual Model
The three trends in nursing practice that become evident to me from viewing the Nuring Timeline of Historical Events are: first, the rise of formal education and training for nurses—especially in the latter half of the 20th century when more and more doctors were leaving primary care for special practice and APRNs were being trained to fill the gap in primary care (O’Brien, 2003). Second, there is the rise of advocacy in terms of improving the quality of care provided to patients. This resulted in a push for the application of more evidence-based practice (EBP). In my own perspective on Nursing Practice, I view this focus on EBP as one of the most important developments in the history of nursing, as it ensures that patients are receiving care that is based on scientific and empirical proof rather than just on whatever one feels might work best. Third, there is the establishment of different levels of nursing, with specific roles defined. This trend really helps to make the process of nursing more exact and precise, which is good for the patient. It also mirrors that trend towards specialization that so many doctors began to show in the 20th century (AANP, 2017).
The definition of Nursing as put forward by the American Nurses Association ist that nursing is “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.” This means that nurses have a duty not only to treat patients but also to educate them so that they can prevent the onset of illness in the future. This definition addresses the metaparadigm theories of nursing in the sense that it provides a total framework for what nursing should achieve. I believe that various theories find support in this framework—from preventive care nursing to transcultural nursing to holistic approaches, various middle-range and borrowed theories and more, which facilitates the expansion of nursing overall, as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2015) has noted.
References
American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2017). Historical timeline. AANP.
Retreived from https://www.aanp.org/all-about-nps/historical-timeline
O’Brien, J. (2003). How nurse practitioners obtained provider status: Lessons for
pharmacists. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 60(22), 2301-2307.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2015). More states removing barriers to nurses’
scope of practice. Retrieved from https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2015/07/more-states-removing-barriers.htm
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