Learning Objectives

Module 2
Nursing Theory and Conceptual Frameworks

Nursing has a rich history of influential theorists who have made significant
contributions to how human health is viewed and supported through nursing
care. This module will explore some of the most predominant nursing theorists
and conceptual frameworks that have helped guide nursing practice.

1. Define nursing theory and discuss how it informs nursing practice.

Organized framework of concepts and purposes designed to guide the practice of nursing.
Provides a systematic view for explaining, predicting, and prescribing phenomena.

2. Explore the purpose of a conceptual framework

Organized core nursing concepts & proposed relationships among these concepts

3. Compare the different contributions of nursing theorists to the following nursing theories:
• Practice-based theories
Reflect issues shaping the role & context of nursing during specific times
Ie) Florence Nightingale, Mcgill Model
• Needs theories
Conceptualize patient as representing a collection of needs. Studying the nature of people in
which needs, drives and competencies where thought to hold potential for explaining human
behaviour.
IE) Viginia Henderson, Dorothea orem
• Interactionist theories
• Systems theories
• Simultaneity theories

4. Discuss how the different nursing theories view the interaction between the individual, the
nurse and the environment
Person: is the recipient of nursing care and may include individuals, patients, groups, families,
and communities.
Nursing: The attributes, characteristics, and actions of the nurse providing care on behalf of or in
conjunction with, the client.
Environment: Environment (or situation) is defined as the internal and external surrounds that
affect the client.

5. Explain the eleven determinants of health and their relationship to both health and health
inequality

Determinants of health
The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status.
1) Income
2) Social Support networks
3) Employment & working conditions
4) Physical environment
5) Biological & genetice endowments
6) Individual health practices & coping
7) Healthy childhood development
8) Gender
9) Culture
10) Social environment

6. Discuss the determinants of health in relation to the Bow Valley College Spheres of Caring
conceptual framework

CENTRE = Determinants
of Health and Medicine
Wheel
Holistic Health Approach:
Spiritual (white)
Physical (yellow)
Emotional (red)
Mental (black)

7. Discuss the importance of the traditional Indigenous medicine and the Medicine Wheel in
relation to the Bow Valley College Spheres of Caring conceptual framework

1. A physical structure related to celebrations and brings forth the connection of the people and
the land.
2. It is described as “mirror-like”, as you can focus on the many energies with an individual at
the center
3. The medicine wheel teachings are about walking the earth in a peaceful and good way, they
assist in helping to seek; healthy minds (East), strong inner spirits (South), inner peace (West)
and strong healthy bodies (North).
 Nursing Arts Module 2 (Theoretical Foundations of Nursing Practice)

Nursing Theory
Organized framework of concepts and purposes designed to guide the practice of nursing. Provides a
systematic view for explaining, predicting, and prescribing phenomena.

Nursing Process
Problem solving approach involving
Assessment
Diagnosis
Planning
Intervention
Evaluation
ADPIE

Conceptual Frame Work

Organized core nursing concepts & proposed relationships among these concepts

Assessment Phase
Gather Info
biological, sociocultural, environmental, spiritual & psychological. Help to provide a nursing diagnosis.

Nursing Diagnosis
Nurses perspective on the approach focus for the patient

Planning Phase
prioritize issues raised in assessment. What can be supported by nursing intervention, create a plan of
care.

Intervention Phase
plan of care is carried out

Evaluation Phase
Plans success or failure, were intended outcomes achieved.

Clinical Judgement
use of nursing process, complex, intuitive & conscious thinking

Grand theory
a global conceptual framework that provides insight into abstract phenomena
ex) human behaviour & Nursing science

Mid-Range Theory
more limited scope, less abstract (Administration, clinical, or teaching)

Descriptive Theory
describes phenomena, speculates why

Prescriptive Theory
Addresses nursing interventions and helps predict the consequences of a specific intervention

Practice Based Theories

Reflect issues shaping the role & context of nursing during specific times
Ie) Florence Nightingale, Mcgill Model

Determinants of health
the range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status.
1) Income
2) Social Support networks
3) Employment & working conditions
4) Physical environment
5) Biological & genetice endowments
6) Individual health practices & coping
7) Healthy childhood development
8) Gender
9) Culture
10) Social environment
Need Theories
Conceptualize patient as representing a collection of needs. Studying the nature of people in which
needs, drives and competencies where thought to hold potential for explaining human behaviour.
IE) Viginia Henderson, Dorothea orem

Interactionist Theories
Collaborative relationship between nurses and clients. Specific human communicative and behavioural
patterns by which practitioners met their patients needs.
ex) Hildegard Pepelau, Joyce Travelbee , Evelyn Adam

System Theories
Individual is viewed as an open system in constant interaction with the environment. Systems
approaches help nurses recognize that intervention in any one part of a system would produce
consequent reactions in other parts.
accounted for the whole of an entity
ex) Dorothy Johnson, UofBC model, Betty Neuman, Sister callista Roy.

Simultaneity Theories
Fundamentally distinct from the practice, needs, interactionist and system theories. Veiw the individual
as an entirely irreducible whole, inherently and holography connected wit the universal environment.
ex) Martha Rogers, Rosemarie Parse, Jean Watson

Indigenous Medicine Wheel

North: Air, white skinned, stars, midnight, death/winter, intellectual mind, animal, sweet grass.
East: Fire, yellow skinned people, sun/dawn, growth, spring, emotional heart, mineral, tobacco
South: Water, red skinned people, moon, noon, birth, summer, spiritual soul, plant, cedar
West: Earth, black skinned people, dusk, maturity, Autumn, physical body, human, sage.
Nurses Care For
Individual/Family
Community/Indigenous reserves
Society

How Nurses Care

Caring for and about clients
Adapting - our own nursing practice to fit the needs fo the individual
Responding - to different situations and needs of the client/person