Learning about nursing theory.

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Think back to the beginning of the course and consider your thoughts on learning about nursing theory. Did you question the usefulness of spending a term learning about theory? Next, consider your current practice environment now that you know more about theory. Is theory used in practice, or is there a theory practice gap that needs to be addressed?

If you think theory is known and used in practice, support your view with evidence.
If you think a theory – practice gap exists, support your view with evidence.

Sample Solution

When I first started this course, I was not sure how useful it would be to spend an entire term learning about nursing theory. I had never really considered the importance of nursing theory in practice before and wasn’t sure how relevant it could be in my everyday work as a nurse. However, as we progressed through the course and discussed different theories and their implications on practice, I began to recognize why they are so important.

One key takeaway from this course is that nursing theory can provide valuable insight into patient care and help bridge any gaps that may exist between what is taught in school versus what actually happens on the floor with real patients. It provides a framework for connecting evidence-based practices to clinical decision making which ultimately allows nurses to make more informed decisions when caring for their patients (Carpenito, 2020). Furthermore, knowing about these theories helps nurses think more critically when engaging with their professional peers since having a shared understanding leads towards better collaboration thus resulting in improved outcomes.

Although there still seems to be some disconnect between knowledge gained from theory & actual application of it within practice environments – known commonly as the ‘theory-practice gap’ – overall I believe that by being mindful of its purpose & relevance within our field then we can start taking steps towards closing this gap as well.

Being aware of various theories also gives us an opportunity to reflect upon our own values & beliefs while exploring possible interactions between them plus those held by our patients, which can contribute greatly towards building trust amongst all parties involved thus making healthcare delivery much more efficacious.

llenges that may have contributed to the lack of a generally accepted definition. Regarding the BM, the authors highlighted the difficulties in distinguishing terrorism from other forms of political violence, such as insurgencies, guerrilla warfare, and civil wars. Terrorism also encounters literal and analytical STs. While literal STs are a product of the author’s geographical or psychological distance from the terrorist act, which ultimately determines what event is tagged a terrorist act, or an uprising; analytical STPs occur as a result of over generalisation of the concept. Collier and Mahon described it as follows:

When scholars take a category developed for one set of cases and extend it to additional cases, the new cases may be sufficiently different that the category is no longer appropriate in its original form. If this problem arises, they may adapt the category by climbing the ladder of generality, thereby obeying the law of inverse variation. As they increase the extension, they reduce the intension to the degree necessary to fit the new contexts (Collier & Mahon, 1993, p. 846).

Thus, on the one hand, terrorism could stretch to the point of abstraction or require the invention of a new word that would represent a broader set of actions (Weinberg, Pedahzur and Hirsch-Hoefler (2004, p. 779).

Irrespective of these challenges and in recognition of the vast range of benefits which a consensual definition of terrorism would yield, scholars have continued to explore different approaches towards combating the definition menace. Although, no consensus has been reached, the efforts by the authors have yielded some degree of success. On the one hand are authors who emphasise the psychological element of terrorism, on the other are those, who recognise the empirical deficiency of such a route and have adopted, safer, observable components in crafting their definitions. An examination of two separate studies will serve to elucidate these differences, as well as highlight the merits and demerits of each stance. The researcher’s expression of terrorism as a politically motivated tactic involving the use or threat of violence, with the primary purpose of generating a psychological impact beyond the immediate victims or object of attack in which the pursuit of publicity plays a significant role, is a product of the merits of the definitions proposed by the authors in these studies.

 

 

Towards resolving the 30-year terrorism definition conflict, Weinberg, Pedahzur and Hirsch-Hoefler (2004) compared Schmid’s definition, (see excerpt below), a product of a survey in which 22 definitional elements were identified in the 109 definitions of terrorism retrieved from 200 participants; to the application of the concept in three terrorism-based academic journals: Terrorism, Studies in Conflict and Terroris

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