Personal Theoretical Framework for Advanced Practice Nursing
Personal Theoretical Framework for Advanced Practice Nursing
The nursing practice maintains an important position in the general provision of healthcare. Attainment of better-quality healthcare services, therefore, requires that nurses do their duties optimally and with full dedication towards this course. Optimal productivity, however, is intrinsic and individually driven. Nursing philosophies are intended to bring the best out of individual nurses. These philosophies are expressions of one’s driving force towards not only becoming a better nurse but also creating the work environment they envision themselves to be having. Philosophy statements in this regard encompass beliefs, values, and ethics that guide the practice of nursing as well as motivate individual nurses to fully dedicate their lives towards the betterment of their patients’ lives. This paper seeks to discuss a theoretical framework for a philosophy that guides nursing practice.
Nursing is not only a course towards remedying illness and disease states but also the utilization of nursing values of kindness, integrity, caring as well, and knowledge to better the lives of individuals and their communities. This philosophy statement highlights a greater scope of nursing practice beyond the conventional patient care responsibilities. By challenging nurses to utilize the respective nursing values and knowledge base to better the lives of communities, this statement is aimed at ensuring that nurses take part in other community activities that are targeted at ensuring safer and better communities. Such activities as community outreach programs and community health education, among others, have the benefit of enlightening community members about better living. Nurses being ambassadors of health promotion, are challenged to take up these activities and utilize them to champion a better and safer living environment for the individual members of these communities.
Conventional nursing practice is often targeted at enhancing the safety of the patients by ensuring the provision of quality care to the patients. While efforts have been made by nurses in this regard, as evidenced by improved quality of care as well as patient outcomes, much has not been achieved outside the clinical scope of nursing practice. Nurses are critical components of the general healthcare provision system, and their input in community health promotional activities retains great significance. This philosophy acts as a wake-up call that urges nurses to get out of their comfort zones of clinical practice and reach out to individual communities.
Health attainment and maintenance require a collaborative approach that draws both the individual community members as well as their healthcare providers. The role of communities is often to participate in activities that ensure that they promote their health. Healthcare providers like nurses, on the other hand, are expected to share knowledge on these health promotional activities and their significance towards health promotion. Activities such as community screening for diseases, health education on chronic disorders, and education on the significance of proper hygiene and sanitation have the benefits of promoting the health of entire communities. Nurses are well poised to handle these activities since they possess the knowledge base required for such activities. These activities will also reinforce the position of nurses in community health promotion. The philosophy statement above is targeted towards ensuring this.
Nursing theories define a structure of ideas that gives a tentative perspective of a nursing phenomenon. Nursing theories will explain the why in nursing practice. Nursing theories isolate nursing practice from other health disciplines by defining specific aspects of practice that are unique to nursing practice (Rosa et al., 2020). These theories offer frameworks to which nurses’ roles are distinguishable from other healthcare roles and also reinforce the vitality of nursing care provisions for individual nurses. Nursing theories are coiled around near similar conceptual frameworks that are fundamental to nursing practice. The four major conceptual frameworks on which these theories are based are collectively known as the nursing metaparadigm and include nursing, environment, health, and person (Mudd, Feo, Conroy & Kitson, 2020). Various theories have been postulated by historical theorists, examples of which are the philosophy of caring by Jean Watson, the environment theory by Florence Nightingale, and the Theory of Interpersonal Relations by Hildegard Peplau, among others.
Jean Watson, in 1979, coiled the philosophy of human caring. This theory highlighted how the humanistic aspects of nursing practices are interlinked with the scientific knowledge required in nursing practice. Jean postulated that caring science offers