Running Head: IMPORTANCE OF THEORY IN NURSING 1
Importance of Theory in Nursing
Carole Bingley
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR501: Theoretical Basis for Advance Practice Nursing
May 2017
Week 1 DQ Importance of Theory in Nursing
IMPORTANCE OF THEORY IN NURSING 2
For many students enrolled in NR 501, this is an initial course for nursing theory. So,
let’s have a debate!!! Is nursing theory important to the nursing profession? If you
believe that it is important, explain why it is useful. If you do not believe that it is useful,
explain why nursing theory is not necessary to the profession? Be sure to provide an
example that demonstrates your opinion and a scholarly reference (not using the
required textbook or lesson) which supports your opinion.
Dr. Carol and fellow classmates,
After reading the required readings for this week and recalling my lessons on nursing
theory in NR351,
I feel that nursing theory is necessary to our every changing, complex nursing
profession.
Nursing theory is a framework to guide the practice of nursing in utilizing concepts and
relationships to guide patient assessments and interventions (Hood, 2014, p. 127;
Karnick, 2014).
If nursing practice lacked theory, potentially, a loss of the long sought after delineation
of profession over trade could occur.
Historically, society has viewed the field of nursing as a vocational occupation,
where nurses simply carried out orders given by physicians without any accountability
(Hood, 2014, p.126).
McEwen (2014) asserts that nursing is an evolving profession, an academic discipline,
and a science.
Pioneers in nursing generated nursing theories and models to demonstrate how the
nursing profession is beneficial to positive patient outcomes (Hood, 2014, p. 126).
Nurses have the scientific knowledge to apply their professional, individualized
interventions to promote health, prevent diseases and care for acutely ill patients
(Karnick, 2014).
It is clear to me that theory paves the path to autonomy by guiding practice, promoting
education and research. From Nightingale to the present, nursing theorists have been