Please post two replies to the following discussion board with references:

Evaluation and Analysis of Nursing Theory

 

·      Name of Nursing theory?

Theory of Caring by Kristen Swanson

·      What is the level, Is the theory a conceptual model or grand theory, Middle range, or practice theory?

Middle range theory

·      What are the major assumptions?

Theory of Caring is based on five processes: Knowing, being With, Doing for, Enabling, and maintaining belief. Swanson’s theory framework are four main assumptions: nursing, person -client, health, and environment (Alligood,2022).

Swanson defined

Nursing as provide care to well-being through empirical knowledge which gained from nursing and other disciplines, adding ethical, personal, and esthetic knowledge to provide better care for the patient.

Person: Swanson provide more that one definition to person but from different perspectives. In general person is a unique as individual, which is influenced by his environment lead to adynamic changes such as grow, and life experience, in addition, the spiritual and positive energy.

Health: or well-being as “wholeness” meaning combination of spiritual, thoughts, feelings, and others human aspects to have the free well.

Environment: Swanson considered culture, biophysical, socioeconomical, and political are influencing the client ass a part of the environment and the human changed when one of these factors changing.

All these assumptions were integrated and the five processes.

·      What is the scope of the nursing theory?

The Caring theory use to help nurses to support, empower, empathize patient to cure client and fasten healing process. It gives a guide to nurses to treat patient as individual has unique needs and demands, to promote health and deliver patient care and promoting well-being with free well.

Usefulness

 

·      Describe the usefulness of the nursing theory in practice, research, and education.

Caring theory is very useful in practice, research, and education, because it included all four concepts of knowledge, that looks to the patient in a holistic manner (Khuan ,2006) the five processes can provide a framework for nurses in different clinical practice (Alligood ,2022). Interestingly the theory of Caring was utilized nationally and internationally on different population, mostly mothers with miscarried as the five processes provided at the theory was clear, simple and easy to implement by nurses to patients without escaping any aspect of the human life (Al Yasin ,2023). Also, it can be implemented in nursing education (McKelvey ,2018).

 

Parsimony

 

·      Clarity- Are the concepts, variables and relationships clearly defined

According to Alligood (2022), findings the five caring processes and concepts are clear, logic, and organized in sequences of delivering care from nurse to client. In addition, Swanson used the concepts of nursing knowledge to enhance the patient – nurse relation.

·      How simple is the Nursing theory? Is it easy to understand or is it complex?

The theory of Caring is simple with specific concepts, organized in sequences (Alligood ,2022). Beside the usage of nursing knowledge concepts to cover all aspect of the patient – nurse relation.

Testability

 

·      How accessible is the Nursing theory? Do the concepts, assumptions and relationships make sense, can it be applied to in differing environments?

The Caring theory was nationally and internationally accessible due to clear concepts, framework, major assumptions, and this theory is considered as contemporary because it was introduced in 1990. A good example, study conducted in Sweden using this theory conclude that Swanson’s theory of Caring helped mothers to build self-esteem, and identify gaps in the clinical area to improve, because the theory was simple and easy to implement in different environment (Jansson& Adolfsson ,2011).

·      How general is the Nursing theory? Can it be expanded to wider populations, or is it specific?

Swanson’s theory of Caring is generalized although it was initially developed for mothers with miscarried, yet the theory found to be used in 120 studies with different population such as nursing students (Mårtensson, et al, 2020).

Value

 

·      How would you evaluate the effectiveness of this theory in practice, what will you be looking for, are the outcomes tangible?

The theory of Caring is effective in practice and able to identify the gaps in clinical area, because it has five processes that overlap, so it will be easy to know the sequences and ways to improve it, because it focuses on the patient -nurse relation, also Swanson’s Caring theory consider the environment and person are integrated and changed all the time, so they implement the five processes that able to include any different aspect. 

·      How important is the nursing theory to nursing as a profession?

Nursing theory was developed to move nursing as a profession from other disciplines. Nursing theories play major role in improving nursing practice, understand the changes at the environment around the patient to promote health, and prevent diseases. I look at the nursing theory house walls, and the decision making are the roof of this house, so we can’t, the make right decision if we don’t have a guide built on other previous experience, skills, and knowledge. Finally, the growth in nursing theories is an important indication that nurses are facing a lot of demands and using them help to save time and not to fall in previous mistakes.

 

1. Discuss difficulties that may be encountered when applying the selected theory to practice.

Swanson ‘s Caring theory is important to understand the relationship client and nurse with clear framework. In 2023, Al Yasin considered the Caring theory was the easiest theory to implement in comparison with Watson’s the Core of Caring (Al Yasin ,2023)

1. Discuss what you have learned from analyzing this theory.

The Caring theory was an eye oping for me. It is a middle -range theory, but still carry some grand theories characteristics, organized in sequence, that is important to set the nurse priority caring for a client.

1. After you complete your analysis, rank the theory and its application to nursing practice. Use a Likert scale to rank your theory from 1-5 (1. extremely applicable, 2. applicable, 3. somewhat applicable, 4. difficult, 5. extremely difficult).  Provide a rationale for the Likert score selected.

4 / 5 applicable to nursing practice because it has great farmwork, organized steps too follow, implemented in different studies include education, nursing practice, and researcher. This middle range theory of Caring can be implemented easier than other theories, because all the contexts are clear, simple, easy to implement.

 

 

References:

Alligood, M. R. (2022). Nursing theorists and their work (10th ed.). Elsevier – Health Sciences Division.

Jansson, C., & Adolfsson, A. (2011). Application of “Swanson’s middle range caring theory” in Sweden after miscarriage. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 02(02), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.4236/ijcm.2011.22021 

Khuan, L. (2006). Inquiry into ways of knowing in nursing. Journal of Malaysian Nurses Association, 2(1), 14-16.   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280573669Links to an external site.

Mårtensson, S., Hodges, E. A., Knutsson, S., Hjelm, C., Broström, A., Swanson, K. M., & Björk, M. (2020). Caring Behavior Coding scheme based on Swanson’s theory of caring – development and testing among undergraduate nursing students. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 35(4), 1123–1133. https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.12927 

McKelvey, M. M. (2018). Finding meaning through Kristen Swanson’s caring behaviors: A cornerstone of healing for nursing education. Creative Nursing, 24(1), 6–11. https://doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.24.1.6 

Al Yasin, A. M. (2023). Theory critique of Kristen Swanson’s theory of caring. Open Journal of Nursing, 13(08), 528–536. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2023.138035