Talk:Nursing theory

I would add Jean Watson to the list of theorists.

reference http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Watson.html

or perhaps she is too similar to others, I am no expert.

One way I found helpful of distinguishing between the swampiness of all the hundreds of theorists, was to explain the difference between atomistic and unitary approach.

Atomistic theorists advocate that nursing consist of smaller parts which can be broken down and studied individually, such as King and Neuman. This approach lensds itself well to an industrial approach to nursing and makes quantitative reseacrh easier (intervention A versus B versus placebo). Criticised for being too mechanical and illiberal for a human service industry.

Unity approach advocates a synergistic dimension is inherent to nursing. The client, nurse, environment and issues enjoy a degree of interaction this is only synthetically seperable. includes authors like Rogers and Parse. Lends itself well to spiritual exploration and and more qualititve approaches. Criticized for being too dilute to direct practise.

Most nursing academics use a triangulation or eclectic or approach which encourages a mix of paradigms. My experience with clinical nurses is that they have scarcely considered theorists after qualifying.