Theoretical perspectives of nursing: a review of the literature

Abstract

The discipline of nursing has slowly evolved from the traditional role of women having been influenced by a variety of factors such as apprenticeship, humanitarian aims, religious ideals, medicine, increasing technology, politics, war, feminism and more recently research. This variety of influences is reflected in the many and varied definitions and descriptions of nursing currently espoused in the literature. A review of the most widely cited definitions and descriptions of nursing from Nightingale to the present day resulted in the identification of eight theoretical perspectives of nursing. Each of these are discussed. The author concludes that nursing has yet to arrive at a consensus regarding the nature, components and process of nursing which is crucial for professional credibility and the viability of professional nursing as it enters the next millennium.

Who cares? Offering emotion work as a ‘gift’ in the nursing labour process

“…Their comments confirm the underlying social expectation that nursing is a vocation, involving altruism and an overwhelming drive to ‘care’ for people, rather than offering a career involving choice and skill (Lorentzon 1990, Lee‐Treweek 1997). The assumption is that caring is an inherent part of nursing (Department of Health and Social Security [DHSS] 1972, Woodward 1997) and it has been pointed out that the words ‘nursing’ and ‘care’ have been inextricably linked for over 100 years (Hilton 1997).…”

Treatment advice in primary care: a comparative study of nurse practitioners and general practitioners

“…Alternatively, the different training of nurse practitioners may be influential. During preregistration and certainly during any hospital‐based clinical experience, they would have been taught to assess patients using nursing models that depict individuals as motivated towards independence when their health is compromised, so that the role of the nurse is specifically defined as enabling patients to self‐help (Hilton 1997). These nurse practitioners have, perhaps, retained this element of their nursing identity while extending their practice to include a wider range of skills.…”

The Spiritual Intelligence of Nurses in Taiwan

“…Nowadays, nurses are trained to have logical and critical thinking processes. The nursing process itself is expected to grounded largely in problem solving (Hilton, 1997). Fealy's (1999) empirical study examined the degree of nurses' acceptance of nursing theories.…”