Theoretical Foundation of APN,
DB 1
Choose a theory from your undergraduate education in any discipline. It should be a commonly used theory for the general public such as Maslow, Darwin, Descartes, or others you used in physiology courses, chemistry, business courses, etc. Do NOT use a nursing theory. Provide the theory in your response. Identify the two concepts and the proposition between them. Explain the concepts. How might the terms used differ from the general use of the term? How might the term be confused or misinterpreted? Format your theory in the form “psychosocial development (Concept A) progresses through (Proposition) stages (Concept B)”.
DB 2
Choose a clinical situation in your specialty (hospice) and create a theory from your observations. Use a form that clearly identifies your concepts and proposition such as; “psychosocial development (Concept A) progresses through (Proposition) stages (Concept B)”. Identify and define the concepts involved and the proposition between them. For example, a surgical unit nurse may have observed that elevating the head of the bed for an abdominal surgery patient (Concept A) reduces (Proposition) complaints of pain (Concept B). The concepts are the head of the bed and pain. The proposition is that changing one will decrease the other. Raising the head of the bed decreases pain. Use current literature to define your concepts. Each concept should have at least two supporting references.
DB 3
Watson’s Caring Theory, a grand theory and conceptual model in nursing. Identify a middle-range theory within her conceptual model. Clearly identify how she defines the concepts and propositions between them. Report using the form “psychosocial development (Concept A) progresses through (Proposition) stages (Concept B)”. Psychosocial development and stages are examples and NOT required for the assignment.
DB 4
“Knowledge as a component of the socio-cultural orientation basic conditioning factor enhances the prevention of hazards” is a theory from a major nursing framework. Identify the framework and provide an example of how other applications of this theory may occur in nursing practice. For example, you may say that education may enhance the reduction of free-throw rugs in an elderly person’s home which will prevent falls. Tie the concepts together by clearly defining them and how they could be measured. Find an instrument, survey, or tool in the literature that could be used to measure the concept. For example, if you are measuring pain, you might use the Faces Pain Scale-Revised, at the following link: https://www.iasp-pain.org/Education/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1519
DB 5
Find a concept within Watson’s Theory of Caring and a similar concept within any other nursing theory. Compare the two concepts for similarities and differences. Illustrate how a person reading about a theory can be influenced in their understanding of a theory if they have a different definition of a concept than the author.
DB 6
Use the theory that you developed in (DB 2). Improve it by using the information you have obtained in the intervening weeks. Use the Conceptual – Theoretical – Empirical Model (CTE) to link the operational definitions with the empirical indicators with the theoretical concepts and the conceptual model components. Post your revised theory and explain how you would measure the concepts and proposition in a research study.
DB 7
Link the theory you developed in DB 2 and DB6 with the Metaparadigm of Nursing. Each of the elements of the Metaparadigm should be represented in your theory. Revise your theory if necessary to include each of the components of the Metaparadigm.
DB 8
Take one component in the Metaparadigm of Nursing, identify and discuss the concept or concepts of Watson’s Theory of Caring that support that Watson wrote a theory of nursing based on the criteria established in the Metaparadigm of Nursing.
DB 9
Ask five nurses the following question. Ask the question without explanation or expansion. Tell them you are doing a class project and need the following question answered. There are no right or wrong answers. “What is the purpose of nursing?” Ask five lay persons the exact same question in the exact same manner. Summarize your findings.
DB 10
Using any resources that you can find, identify the difference between nursing practice and advanced practice nursing. Support advanced practice nursing by identifying nursing theories that can be applied to advanced practice nursing.
DB 11
Identify the unique purpose of nursing that is NOT performed by any other profession. What do nurses do that no other profession or discipline is dedicated to perform? Identify this concept and link it to a concept in any theoretical framework.
