Assignment: Theory of Nursing

Assignment: Theory of Nursing

Assignment: Theory of Nursing

The theory of nursing has gained much attention for the last five decades leading to a tremendous growth and massive expansion of education and literature in the field of nursing. Although the success of nursing care in the traditional days was based on vocational training and education that emphasized more on competition of skills in the functional areas of each medical practitioner rather than using evidence-based approaches to care (Alligood, 2013). Essentially, many of the nursing practices in the olden days were not tested to evaluate their effectiveness. However, the dawn of the twenty-first century has been marked by phenomenal efforts to use evidence-based practices to ensure that there is quality improvement in the care offered to the patient. Ideally, the textbook authored by Martha Raile Alligood (2013) presents a historical development in the nursing sector that has led to a new whole level of nursing knowledge. That said, the purpose of this paper is to identify some of the trends in the history of nursing that has improved knowledge of nursing and to discuss whether nursing is a science or an art.

Historical trends

One of the tremendous inputs in the history of nursing was the establishment of nursing school at St. Thomas Hospital in London by Florence Nightingale. Ideally, this was the initial mark of the progression of nursing knowledge in the whole world. During Nightingale’s time, women were usually discriminated in employment and education sector (Alligood, 2013). While she observed that promoting women’s nursing education was important through her experience in taking care of the victims of the Crimean War, she envisioned that establishing a nursing school to increase nursing knowledge and awareness would have a tremendous development in medical sector. As such, through the efforts of Nightingale, nursing schools have been erected throughout the United States basing their nursing practice on evidence.

Development of conceptual and theoretical frameworks also led to the expansion of nursing knowledge in the mid-1970s. According to Alligood (2013), the need to have nursing knowledge based on theory and concept matched with the need to standardize the nursing curricula for master’s and doctoral education as suggested by Chinn and Kramer (2013). The ongoing debates argued that students pursuing a doctorate course in nursing should be a nurse by profession because of amassing nursing knowledge that was capable of changing the nursing sector. Another historical development in the field of nursing took place in the 1980s when the nursing theory was further developed from pre-paradigm to paradigm, which were embedded in larger context of metaparadigm. Essentially, this paradigm shift in the theory of nursing led to improvements in nursing knowledge by clarifying the concepts of nursing, health, environment, and person.

Is nursing an art or a science?

Nursing has two sides. It is both an art and a science. The more apparent side of nursing is the science perspective in the sense that a nurse must be conversant with the nursing care plan before offering any medication to the patient. As a science, nurses must be familiar with the nursing procedures, practices, policies, management of diseases, and the right medication, which are all evidence-based (Alligood, 2013). The art of nursing involves nursing practitioners exhibiting their nursing skills into practice. It requires skillfulness in bridging information between a nurse and a patient. It entails utilizing all knowledge gathered from science to provide the best care to the patient.

Conclusion

The main purpose of this paper was to identify some of the trends in the history of nursing that has improved knowledge of nursing and to discuss whether nursing is a science or an art. Indeed, the paper has reflected on three historical developments, one from Nightingale, development of conceptual and theoretical frameworks, and a shift from pre-paradigm to paradigm. Essentially, the three historical developments had a phenomenal development of nursing knowledge. Besides, the paper has argued that nursing is both an art and a science.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.