Evolution of Nursing Discussion
Evolution of Nursing Discussion
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Read “The Impact of Education on Nursing Practice,” by Rosseter (2017), located on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) website.
http://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Impact-of-Education
Read “Scope of Practice,” located on the American Nurses Association (ANA) website.
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/scope-of-practice/
Read “Creating a More Highly Qualified Nursing Workforce,” by Rosseter (2015), located on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) website.
http://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Workforce
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Theories seem to be such esoteric notions for a profession of nursing that seemed to function well for decades, without highlighting theories. Can nursing practice history guide nursing practice future with theories? Why/not?
Since the beginning of nursing practice, education involved passing down traditions and
experiences through an apprenticeship and reading hospital manuals. In the early 20th century, Florence Nightingale proposed that a body of knowledge be established to teach the best practices for nursing care, although the proposal was not taken seriously until the 1950s. Finally, standardized curriculum was developed for nursing students to study, research was executed by those seeking higher education, graduate programs were established to provide knowledge for specialized areas in nursing, and theories were formatted based on the increased knowledge development from research (Alligood, 2018).
Theories have allowed nurses to have a guided path for more research, education, and practice in order
to provide evidence based practice and quality patient care. Today, these theories are utilized as the
backbone of nursing. For example, if a current policy is being reviewed for change, the nursing theories
can be applied as a reference instead of going back to historical nursing practices and redoing decades of
research that has already been performed. As stated by Younas and Quennell (2019), nursing theories
allow nurses to convey what they do for patients and why they do it, therefore improving the quality of
nursing care. The practice of nursing throughout history has been guiding future practices by using
theories and will continue to do so as more advances in healthcare are researched and established.
Define both rationalism and empiricism. Differentiate between these two scientific approaches.
Markie and Folescu define rationalism as using established theories and innate ideas in order to
solve problems and advance knowledge. A rationalist would believe knowledge is stemmed from ideas possessed before birth (2021). In contrast, empiricism is a belief that knowledge stems from experiences
and observations (Hardin, 2018). The cause and effect of a situation can have many points of view
depending on the type of scientific approach taken. In practice, a rationalist would determine the cause
and effect by using established theories until otherwise proven incorrect with extensive facts and
research (Hardin, 2018). The cause would have to be proven with certainty instead of reason. An
empiricist, on the other hand, could disagree with the cause or form many different causes based on
personal experiences or observations. For example, the scientific approach for a baby learning to talk
could be widely disputed. A rationalist would believe that a because a baby was born with the
knowledge and ability to talk, the baby will talk. An empiricist would disagree with that notion, but
believe that because the baby uses sensory experiences throughout infancy such as hearing sounds and
seeing movements of the mouth, the baby will eventually learn to talk.
Evolution of Nursing Discussion References
Alligood, M. (2018). Introduction to nursing theory: Its history and significance. In M. Alligood (Ed.),
Nursing theorists and their work (9th ed., pp. 2-10). Elsevier.
Hardin, S. (2018). History of nursing science. In M. Alligood (Ed.), Nursing theorists and their work (9th
ed., pp. 28-34). Elsevier.
Markie, P., & Folescu, M. (2021). Rationalism vs. Empiricism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford
encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2021 ed.). Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/enteries/rationalism-empiricism/
Younas, A., & Quennell, S. (2019). Usefulness of nursing theory-guided practice: An integrative review.
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 33(3), 540-555. https://doi10.1111/scs.12670