theory-practice gap – Savvy Essay Writers | savvyessaywriters.net
theory-practice gap – Savvy Essay Writers | savvyessaywriters.net
Week 2 Discussion
Tasks:
1. The “theory-practice gap,” as some have called it, has prevented our profession from full utilization of its knowledge base in practice, and has impeded the view of nursing as a theoretically based discipline, to its detriment. There are distinctly different viewpoints to this argument, based on the different perspectives of academics and theoreticians on the one hand and that of practitioners on the other. Being honest about your reaction, and applying critical thinking skills to the question, where do you stand on the issue, and why?
2. The development of the discipline of nursing has gone through many stages of philosophical debates. Justify the relevance and utility of the knowledge of theory development to your practice.
Directions:
Guidelines: Support your responses with scholarly academic references using APA style format. Assigned course readings and online library resources are preferred. Weekly lecture notes are designed as overviews to the topic for the respective week and should not serve as a citation or reference.
In your discussion question response, provide a substantive response that illustrates a well-reasoned and thoughtful response; it is factually correct with relevant scholarly citations, references, and examples that demonstrate a clear connection to the readings.
Week 2 – Course Resources
Theory Development – Barrier and Stimulants
Development of a theoretical body of knowledge, unique to the nursing domain, is directly proportional to equivalent strides taken in the area of research. Effective integration of theory and practice is essential for the survival and growth of the nursing profession. To continue the cycle of meaningful advancements, researchers need to identify barriers and overcome them. Along with this, they also need to take note of factors that stimulate the process of theory development. Let’s examine how knowledge has played a crucial role in setting obstacles in the path of theory development on the one hand and, on the other, how it has facilitated the development of nursing theories.
How did knowledge act as a barrier to the process of theory development?
How did knowledge act as a stimulant in the process of theory development?
Use of the knowledge of other disciplines was long seen as superior to that developed by nurses.
Knowledge breeds knowledge; existing theory now provides impetus for further refinement and development.
Other disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, and physiology, prepared their students to do research in nursing and develop theories for nurses, rather than encouraging nursing to prepare its own students to do research and theory development.
Old paradigms are challenged by new ones as they are influenced by social factors, factors in healthcare, and practice changes.
The National League for Nursing (NLN) requirement for colleges and universities often resulted in the development of curricula with esoteric content.
The new worldview is less mechanistic, more congruent with women’s views of science and nurses’ views of health; it is more wholistic and ecological.
The knowledge base developed was unrelated to practice and was far removed from preparing students to be change agents in practice.
Nurses are trained to observe record, analyze, and solve problems, and this unique source of knowledge has provided research efforts that are, finally, far more based in the practice realm than ever before.
The academic focus was on conceptual models as a way to develop theories and theoretical thinking, and often lost sight of the reason to conceptualize in the first place, that is, the underpinnings of nursing practice and patient care.
Nurses spend long hours with patients and family, and are better able to identify and understand patterns of phenomena, rather than perceive health and nursing as a series of isolated incidents.
Development of conceptual models and theories was encouraged as a way to justify and define the status of nursing as a profession, and required the existence of theories.
The move toward the development of middle-range theories, rather than grand theories and conceptual models, has allowed nurses involved directly in the provision of care to ask practice-based questions, do research to answer those questions, and develop new information on a more manageable scale.
Professional Barriers and Stimulants
In addition to knowledge, other factors have hindered or promoted the development of theories. These barriers and facilitators can be professional and social.
Before 1970, women entered nursing because of its service orientation rather than its professional potential. Women were not career oriented; nursing was seen as an in-and-out occupation, one that could be carried out on a part-time basis. It was seen as preparation for an eventual role as wife and mother; the self-identity of nursing students lay in their roles as women, rather than in a professional identity.
Let’s examine the impact of some professional factors on theory development. Sex role stereotyping, for instance, has been a major influence.
How did gender and social status act as a barrier to the process of theory development?
· Role stagnation discouraged the creativity necessary for theoretical thinking, and issues existed over the nature/nurture conflict and giver/scientist role.
· Recognition in nursing was based on the practitioner or educator roles and not based on the roles of researcher or developer of theory, as is the case in other disciplines.
· The self-perception of members of the profession for the discipline was that of low autonomy, poor advancement, and less availability of intellectual stimulation.
· Education has the role of training individuals in thinking, analysis, and conceptualization; nurses were provided training, not education.
· Former nursing training methods served to decrease curiosity and the questioning attitude. These methods thus succeeded in fostering the handmaiden image to doctors, in addition to emphasizing the role of executing orders and implementing hospital policies.
· The focus was on doing tasks, not on thinking. Hospitals played a paternalistic role in which rules and regulations were made by non-nurses, and this created an environment in which questioning was discouraged and rebelliousness punished.
Social Barriers
Social factors too have influenced nursing theory development considerably. The social barriers and stimulants to theory development are:
How did gender and social status act as a barrier to the process of theory development?
How did gender and social status act as a stimulant in the process of theory development?
As women, nurses had distinctly dual roles resulting in role overload that resulted in a state not conducive to questioning, investigation, analysis, and theory development.
Women, as an oppressed minority, have had to deal creatively with situations in which others controlled the resources; as a result, women developed flexibility, innovation, and creativity in finding alternative resources to accomplish their goals. Nurses, as women, are using what they have, valuing their uniqueness.
Female characteristics have long been conceived of as antithetical to creativity and scientific productivity.
Women’s cognitive styles are learned in a lifetime of socializing, negotiating, and fostering team efforts. These have been highly valued in the increasingly team-driven, business world of healthcare.
Women were seen as less analytical and cognitive and were expected to apply, rather than create, knowledge.
Women are a minority in other fields, but are a majority in nursing, and are appreciating the full citizenship this gives them in their own field.
Women suffer from ambivalence when they break away from the mold and often experience achievement-related conflict.
The resulting different attitudes toward nursing and its professional status led to a different attitude toward its theoretical underpinnings.
Internal, intradisciplinary debates, territory/turf issues, and lack of professional cohesion have confused other disciplines and the public about the true nature of nursing as a scientifically-based profession, with its own theoretical foundations and research-tested methodologies.
Women are now recognized for their observational and abstract thinking abilities. Observation is central to nursing practice, and the ability to think abstractly is critical for theorizing. Also important for theorizing is the ability to record what is happening in a nursing care situation. Nurses are adept at describing and explaining, one of the basic elements of the nursing process.
Context, Content, and Process
The impetus for theory development increased dramatically when the NLN required a conceptual framework for nursing curricula. Each nursing education program was required to develop a theoretical framework for the delivery of nursing education. This could be the adoption of a single theory or an amalgamation of several, and were not required to be nursing theories. This became the impetus for theory development primarily in the realm of nursing education. Thus, emerging theories were used to guide teaching, but not practice or research.
Nursing scientists searched for one theory for the entire discipline. Resulting theories were too abstract and complex, or too simplistic. Practitioners believed that the theory movement required them to choose a single theory and adhere to it throughout their practice efforts. None of the theoretical models addressed all aspects of nursing. Therefore, practitioners avoided, ignored, or refused to acknowledge the use of theory in practice. Eventually, two themes evolved at this stage:
· Acceptance of the complexity of nursing and the inevitability of multiple theories to address nursing phenomena
· Acceptance of the need to test elements of theory through research before discarding them.
Now the focus moved to formulating questions about the…
