Nursing Essay

Nursing is a profession focused on assisting individuals ,families and communities in attaining , maintaining and recovering optimal health and functioning . modern definitions of nursing define it as a science and an art that focuses on promoting quality of life as defined by person’s and families ,throughout their life experiences from birth to care to the end of their life. In almost all countries nursing practice is defined and governed by law, and entrance to the profession is regulated at national or state level. The aim of nursing community worldwide is for its professionals to ensure quality care for all while maintaining their credentials, code of ethics, standards and competencies, and continuing their education.

Nursing theory provides the foundation of nursing knowledge and gives direction to nursing practice . it should guide the development and future direction of nursing research . Since, nightingale nursing theories have become increasing sophisticated. Some theories and frameworks are easily adapted to practice settings, whereas others are better suited for research.. Nurses have developed various theories that provide different explanations of the nursing discipline. All theories however share 4 central concepts: person, environment, health and nursing . Each theory defines relates and emphasizes these concepts differently.

The general system theory or a systems provides another approach for studying individuals in their environments and is used in many disciplines. General systems theory includes purpose, content and process, breaking down the “whole” and analyzing the parts .The relationship between the parts of the whole are examined to learn how they work together. Von Bertalanffy developed general system theory , which assumes the following:

1. All systems must be goal directed.
2. A system is more than the sum of its parts.
3. A system is ever changing and any change in one part affects the whole.
4. Boundaries are implicit and human systems are open and dynamic.

General system theory was developed to overcome the over-specialization of the modern times and as a world view of holism .The system theory now a days closer to the traditional specialization by than to holism by interdependence and mutual completing up of mutually different specialists.

Using Roy’s nursing process the nurse assess first the behaviour and second the stimuli affecting those behaviour. In a third step the nurse makes a statement or nursing diagnosis of a person’s adaptive state and fourth,set goals to promote adaptation. Fifth, nursing interventions are aimed at managing the stimuli to promote adaptation .The last step in the learning process is the evaluation .by manipulating the stimuli and not the patient , the nurse enhances the interaction of the person with their environment ,there by promoting health. If research is to affect practitioners behaviour it must be directed at testing and retesting conceptual model for nursing practice. Roy has stated that theory development and testing of developed theories are nursing highest priorities .The model must be able to regenerate testable hypothesis for it to be researchable.

Roger’s innovation –diffusion theory is applied to an analysis of the evolution of the nurse practitioner role .Researchers, theorists and practitioners from many fields are interested in affected by the diffusion of innovation within and across organizations ,including organization development, education, management, health care and public health , information technology and sociology. In health care new clinical and process advancements are continuously developed in research and practice settings, yet these innovations often take years to spread into wide use. An innovation according to roger’s theory is an idea thing, procedure or system that is perceived to be new by whomever is adopting it. The innovation does not need to be new in terms of being recently developed, its only needs to be new to the person or organization that is adopting and implementing it. Complexity relates to ease of understanding and use of an innovation ; more simple ideas are adopted faster than more complex ideas . The Canadian nurse provides another example how a nurse became a source of innovation in her practice .the graduate of a diploma program , she returned to school for her master’s degree and created a role for advanced practice nursing in cardiology when it had yet to exist in her province. To establish her credentials as a practitioner, she took it upon herself to complete a medical school course in medical assessment. In the same innovative manner she went onto establish a preadmission program for assessing cardiac patients about to undergo catheterization .In effect at a time when a system had only began to make adjustments to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of its operations she had already exhibited leadership ability. Another example concerns the practice of medicine. Not so long ago almost all physicians have their own practices .today more work along with their partners in group practices or have salaried position in health care organizations. this happened because of the complexity of health care services require a more elaborate management system which individual medical practitioners find too expensive. Now upto innovation relates to the reform of health care are the accomplishments of Canadian nursing leaders. Unfortunately nurses typically do not share their innovations with the wider community, so nurses who closely works with small groups of colleagues seldom receives the wider recognition that they deserve. Dr. mussallem stands as the first Canadian nurse to attain a doctoral degree in nursing .Her published dissertation from teachers college, Columbia University provided the impetus for subsequent significant innovations in Canadian nursing education. In addition she holds the distinction of being the first nurse to address the Annual Assembly of the Canadian Medical Association. She also conducted a survey for the Royal Commission on health services and a national survey on Canadian schools of nursing. Today’s nurses have the plethora of opportunities to introduce innovation into the health care environment. Porter-O-Grady classifies these innovative opportunities into three categories of change: knowledge based, perceptual and unexpected.

In order to work in the nursing profession, all nurses hold one or more credentials depending on their scope of practice and education. A licensed practioner nurse works as a registered nurse .There is no profession which provides as many opportunities for diversified roles as nurse doing. Nurses may follow their personal and professional interests by working with any group of people, in any setting at any time .The demand of nurses has been on the rise of several years spurred by various economic and demographic factors .And demand for nurses are likely to be increase. 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 responses, and advocacy in health care for individuals, families, communities and populations. The practice of nursing is governed by laws that define a scope of practice generally mandated by the legislature of the political division within which the nurse practices .Nurse are held legally responsible and accountable for their practice.

Bertalanffy also recognized difficulties with the application of a new general theory to social science due to the complexity of the intersections between natural sciences and human social sciences. However the theory still encouraged for new developments from sociology, to anthropology, economics, political science and psychology among other areas .today’s Bertalanffy’s GST remains a bridge for interdisciplinary study of systems in the social sciences.

Diffussion of innovation theory was formalized by Everett’s roger. He stated that adopters of any new innovation or idea could be categorized as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards based on a bell curve. Each adopter willingness and ability to adopt an innovation would depend on their awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption.

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References

Client-Controlled Case Information: A General System Theory Perspective

Journal article by Dale Fitch; Social Work, Vol. 49, 2004

Management And Leadership In Nursing And Health Care- By Elaine La Monica Rigolos

Youth-( book) By Cecilia Breinbauer, Matilde Maddaleno, Maddaleno Herrera Maddaleno H.