Question

EXPLAIN/DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS THOROUGHLY.

1. Does caring (nurse caring) deteriorate with time? How? Explain.
2. How can a novice nurses use the adaptation model in professional practice? Explain.
3. What is the major goal of Peaceful-end of life Theory? Explain.
4. Is Florence Nightingale’s Theory a patient care theory? Yes or No. Discuss your answer.
5. For you, what is the best nursing theory for quality of life promotion? Discuss the theory.

Answer 1

1. No. Nursing care is a skill that helps in providing quality patient care aiming at faster recovery and assistance in health care needs. So with time and practice (experience) such skills will only improve and thereby caring becomes more efficient. Yet there are certain factors that may affect the quality of care like excessive workload and stress causing burnout that may affect the quality of care but it cannot be compared with their nursing skills. Even a skillful nurse may feel exhausted by external factors and its not because of time.
2. Roy's adaptation model can be used to understand and direct nursing practice while caring for individuals with health needs. This model can be used as a framework in order to conceptualize and plan the individual patient care. It can also be used in developing interventions for a discrete population. Understanding the strategies that facilitates better application of the theory may help the novice nurses to improve their care outcome. Few such strategies includes specific assessment and documentation tool development, focusing on specific areas of the model that are most applicable to the target population or client assigned to you, developing multi modal training tool, providing appropriate training at the right time, focusing on problems related to authority and communication etc.
3. Advancement in health care technology enables individuals with terminal illness to survive longer. A longer lifespan may not be topped with a quality life due to the negative physical and psychosocial effects of chronic illness. So palliative care is the best option for life-threatening illnesses. The purpose of Peaceful end of life theory developed by Ruland and Moore is to utilize modern health care tools to provide best possible care available as well as focus on maximizing patient comfort and family involvement in the process of care delivery. This approach enables to improve the quality of life of the client and to face death with a sense of peace (peacefully).
4. Yes. Florence Nightingale is assumed to be the first nurse theorist. Her theory mainly focused on the environment and its features in relation to an individuals health needs. And this theory is applicable to clinical nursing practice till date. As per her concept many of the issues faced by the patient's are not directly associated with the disease condition but may be related to the environment in which they live. The theory helps the nurse to provide better care by using their own intuitions and modifying the environment. According to Nightingale an individual himself is responsible for his own health but in collaboration with nurse and environment.
5. Mainly there are 5 nursing theorists who considered the concept of quality of life in or as adjunct to their nursing theories. Peplau, Leininger, Rogers, King and Parse's theories addresses Quality of life in their theories. Another theory which is considered to be a best nursing theory for quality of life promotion is Dorothea E. Orem's self-Care Theory. Quality of life is a multifaceted concept. It includes areas such as physical and mental health, social functioning, satisfaction with the heath care services, worry about future and the sense of well being. An illness have a direct impact on all the aspects of quality of life. Assisting in and improving performance of self care activities by the patient helps to achieve the main goal of treatment that is to improve the patient's performance and his quality of life. Orem's theory acts as a clinical guide in planning and implementation of self care practices in patients. As per this theory human beings as capable of self care and distortion of this ability can be compensated by adequate nursing care along with supportive education in order to recover and regain the strength for self care. The role of nurse here is as a facilitator and change agent. The care and support role of nurses helps in improving the self care abilities and quality of life in patients with chronic illness.