In our profession, caring for
our patient is always our top priority. It should be the central focus of
nursing. But CARE alone is not enough; UNDERSTANDING should always come along with
it. I believe that CARING plus UNDERSTANDING equals QUALITY Nursing Care.
Caring + Understanding (Knowledge)
= Quality Nursing Care.
But
how do we better understand our patient? How do we know what they need and how
do we give it to them? This is where the importance of nursing theory comes in.
It helps to guide Assessment of patient’s needs, its appropriate intervention
to satisfy the identified needs and evaluation on how effective the
interventions are. Nurses use nursing theory to a certain point of view about
patient care. A more accurate understanding will lead to better diagnosis,
interventions and treatments.
Theories
undoubtedly created a major impact not only in Nursing Practice but as well as
in my personal life.
Thanks God, Theories exist!
Here are some of the Theories and how they influenced my life.
1. Theory of
Bandura about Self-efficacy.
When I was in college, we conducted the thesis about the
relationship of confidence level of nursing students and effective performance
of nursing Procedures. We sought to find out if confidence affects the performance
of nursing students in the clinical area. We are guided by the theory of
Bandura. His theory is all about Self-efficacy. A strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal
well-being in many ways. People with high assurance in their capabilities
approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to
be avoided. Such an efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep
engrossment in activities. They set themselves challenging goals and maintain
strong commitment to them. They heighten and sustain their efforts in the face
of failure. They quickly recover their sense of efficacy after failures or
setbacks. They attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge
and skills which are acquirable. They approach threatening situations with
assurance that they can exercise control over them. Such an efficacious outlook
produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers vulnerability to
depression.—(Albert Bandura, 1994). With
the help of this theory we are able to prove that there exist a relationship
between confidence and effective performance of nursing procedure.
Thanks to Bandura, I finished my thesis.
2. Theory
of Madeleine Leininger: Transcultural Nursing.
Working here in UAE for almost 3 ½ years
allow me to meet people from different walks of life. It is very important for
me to learn the culture of my patient in order for me to give appropriate
nursing care. Only by being familiar with a patient’s individuality and subsequently
incorporating their cultural requirements into the nursing process will be able
to provide holistic nursing care.
Thanks to Leininger Im surviving here in
UAE.
