Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks in Nursing Practice Research Paper - 1

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks in Nursing Practice - Research Paper Example The patients’ overall well-being should be at the centre of nursing. In line with this, nurses need to relate professional knowledge into clinical practice, through theoretical and conceptual frameworks bridges, dynamically linking care between health personnel and care, recipients, in consideration with environmental factors. The body of knowledge in nursing had been divided into several categories to distinguish bulks of nursing concepts constructed. Fawcett (1995 as cited in Timmins, 2005) identified hierarchical structure in nursing knowledge, where different levels are interconnected in clinical fields: â€Å"(1) metaparadigm (2) philosophy (3) theory (4), conceptual models.† Metaparadigms are quite broad in context, which translate clinical values indicated in constructed philosophies, while theories are more specific in experiential nursing fields. Fawcett (1994 as cited in Masters, 2005) added that conceptual models, being the last, pertain to sets of nursing abstracts and propositions that are meaningfully integrated for valid reference in nursing disciplines. One of the fundamental bases in the modern nursing profession is the theory created by Florence Nightingale. Her philosophical concepts are simple in construct, though, it primarily stabilized how nurses act in deference to patient in teraction. In her environmental model for nurses, Nightingale proposed that elements observed in the environment can have a significant impact on patients’ health conditions (Butts & Rich, 2010). The model substantially linked three important entities together: the patient, nurses, and their environment. Her meta-paradigm in Figure 1 (please see Appendix A), showed these three factors that may influence outcomes in health.