DEVELOPMENT OF NURSING THEORY

From the time of Florence Nightingale, the concept of person has played a major role in nursing theory and its development (Flynn and Heffron, 1988, pp. 9-10, 71). While nursing theory has evolved since the nineteenth century, Nightingale's concept of person has remained as a central feature of much of this theory.

Logical positivism and behaviorism influenced the development of nursing theory (Flynn and Heffron, 1988, pp. 62-63; Nicoll, 1986, pp. 214, 357). Logical positivism introduced a verificationist perspective into nursing theory development, while behaviorism caused nursing theorists to seek an understanding of the actions of both patients and care givers (Nicoll, 1986, pp. 282-283, 338). The nursing theory of Hildegard Peplau incorporated aspects of both behaviorism and logical positivism. Peplau's theory was the theory of psychodynamic nursing.

Peplau (1952, pp. 3-4) developed the theory of psychodynamic nursing. According to Peplau, psychodynamic nursing involves the use of one's (the nurse) knowledge and understanding of one's own behavior to help others (patients) identify felt difficulties, and the application of human relations to problems that arise at all levels of experience. This interpersonal process is defined within the context of four phases of the nurse-patient relationship--orientation, iden

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. In the role of counselor, the nurse helps the patient to understand fully what is happening to her or him during the given situation. The counseling role extends across all four phases of the nurse-patient relationship. Nursing theory development since the advent of Peplau's theory has intensified. Behaviorism has continued to play a role in this theory development, however, the concept of holism has assumed an ever expanding importance in nursing theory (Blattner, 1981, pp. 22-31; Nicoll, 1986, p. 379). The introduction of the holistic concept into philosophy led to the schism between individualists and holists. Broadly, the individualist philosophy holds that social wholes have no substantial reality, and that propositions attributing properties or actions to a collectivity can be reduced, without residue, to a series of propositions about the relations and actions of individuals. The alternative view that social facts are not reducible to individual facts is commonly called holism. Holism has also caused conflict in historical analysis. In historical analysis, holism becomes historicism, which holds that each event may be understood only by viewing it within the context of a larger process of which it was a phase, or
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Approximate Word count = 2984
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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