Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 44

THEORETICAL &

PHILOSOPHICAL
FOUNDATIONS OF
NURSING PRACTICE
“How Come?” “How To”

Theory to Practice
ISSUES

 … how can nursing theory and nursing


practice be brought together?
- this question recognizes the separation of nursing
theory and nursing practice is artificial and that nurses
can no longer continue to see these two essential nursing
endeavors in distinct setting

-nursing practice already exist since time immemorial


without valuing the bases of practice
- Florence Nightingale who established that nursing is
independent from medicine and she opposed the new
germ theory of disease and of contagious

Rise of medical science posed a threat to the


integrity of nursing practice

Practice: proper hospital environment, including


good ventilation, proper diet, cleanliness and
patient hygiene fostered healing and helped
prevent the spread of disease

If applied, it would have explained why her


practice worked
**Many fails to see theory’s relevance to the
“real world” of nursing practice

**often have difficulty applying the


information in later courses and in their
research

**most nurses are not aware of theory, nor


can they name a nursing theorist.
-way to organize People who wrote
theories are part of
and think about our nursing history
nursing

Nursing Theory & Philosophy

Provides an
overall “theme”
to what nurses
do
What is philosophy?
Since the beginning of time, men and
women have engaged in the search
for reality and truth. This search is
called philosophy.
Philosophy
- encompasses 3 areas: concerned with…

 knowledge
 values
 being or one’s belief about
existence
 from Greek roots meaning, “the love of
wisdom.”
– Philo (love).
– Sophia (wisdom).

- means “the science which investigates


the facts & principles of reality and of
human nature & conduct.
What is Philosophy?

 Wisdom
Philosophy has been called many things
 and it can have many meanings
Reality

 Theories
Those single words or statements on the right side are only some of
them
 Meaning of Life
 What words would you add?
 Nature of being human
 Life perspectives
What is Philosophy?

 Is an ideal, a belief  Expected behavior of


about a theme or a a nurse: caring –
construct promotive,
 It is supposed to be preventive, curative,
the basis for one’s rehabilitative
actions or behavior  Beneficiary: patient/
family/ community
Philosophy of Nursing
- as the intellectual & effective outcome of
the professional nurses efforts to
 understand the ultimate relationships
between humans & their environment
 approach nursing as a scientific discipline
 integrates a sense of values
 Articulates a personal belief system about
human beings, environment, health, &
nursing as a process
Significance of Philosophy for
Nursing
the integration of the elements of
philosophy into the nursing process & the
assumption that philosophy is a
determinant of actions support the need for
professional nurses to develop & reflect on
their own philosophies of nursing.
 nursing must prepare nurse practitioners
who have a vision for nursing as a
scientific discipline, a concern for the
ultimate good of humankind, and a belief
system reflecting sound ethics
 the practitioners need to have developed
a personal philosophy of nursing that
reflects a belief in leadership “as the
recurrent interplay between private
personality & public performance”
Nursing Philosophy
 Nursing philosophy  The examination of
examines the these truths and ideals
relationship between leads to beliefs and
truth and ideals in ideals that form the
nursing. framework for
nursing practice.
• This framework is meant to guide the day-to-day
process of nurses
Nursing Philosophy
 If it can be said that nursing philosophy is the
search for truth in nursing, then it can be said that
nursing theory is a tentative prediction about the
outcome of that search.
 Nursing philosophy forms the frame of reference
for the scientific view of the nursing process
through the development of a logical body of
scientific evidence.
 Nursing philosophy gives the practice of nursing
credibility and defines it as a profession.
Nursing Philosophy
When nurses discuss the morality of assisted suicide, or
verbalize the belief that all terminally ill patients should be
pain free, that is the expression of philosophy.
 When nurses make  When nurses find out
predictions about through testing that
whether nursing nursing intervention A
intervention A will really does work
work better than better than
intervention B for intervention B, then a
pain management, logical body of
then theories are scientific evidence is
formed. developed.
Nursing Philosophy
 it becomes easy to see  Individual philosophies
how philosophy, can be combined with the
philosophies of others to
theory, and science
become global
flow from one philosophies, and these
concept to another philosophies can have a
with each one being tremendous impact upon
interdependent upon the way nursing is
the other. practiced through the
development of scientific
theory.
Nursing Philosophy
 it is important for each individual nurse to
examine their own nursing philosophy, for
this is the grassroots core to furthering
nursing's scientific logic.
PHILOSOPHY IN NURSING
Why philosophy for
nursing?
 Itarticulates the thinking
about what nursing is, its
relationship with other
disciplines and an
understanding of what guides
nurses behavior in practice.
What elements guide the
practice of nursing :values,
beliefs, assumptions.
DEFINITION
 Realism –be yourself
 Humanism –give yourself
 Rationalism- understand yourself
 Naturalism- describe yourself
 Pragmatism –prove yourself
 Idealism –imagine yourself
 Existentialism –choose yourself
Idealism.
• IDEALISM: imagine yourself
• objects of knowledge, experience
dependent on activity of the mind.
Opposite to realism/materialism. The
perfect form even if it can never be
attained. Objects are nothing more
than a collection of data from the
senses and perceived in that context
by the individual only.
Idealism
 Plato believed education helped move
individuals collectively toward achieving
the good.
 The State should be involved in
education, moving brighter students
toward abstract ideas and the less able
toward collecting data…a gender free
tracking system
 Those who were brighter should rule,
others should assume roles to maintain
Idealism
 Evil comes through ignorance, education
will lead to the obliteration of evil
 More modern idealists: St. Augustine,
Descartes, Kant, Hegel
 Goal of Education: interested in the search
for truth through ideas…with truth comes
responsibility to enlighten others,
“education is transformation: Ideas can
change lives.”
Idealism
 Role of the Teacher: to analyze and discuss
ideas with students so that students can
move to new levels of awareness so that
they can ultimately be transformed,
abstractions dealt with through the
dialectic, but should aim to connect
analysis with action
 Role of the teacher is to bring out what is
already in student’s mind: reminiscence
Realism
 “be yourself”
 Aristotle was the leading proponent of
realism, started the Lyceum, the first
philosopher to develop a systematic
theory of logic
 Generic Notions…only through studying
the material world is it possible to clarify
or develop ideas…matter is real
independent of ideas
 THEISTIC REALISM: Belief in
existence of supreme creator but not
only spiritual. God is real and
knowable through the senses. There
is ‘something’ behind realism or
physical reality. Not a religion per se
as different religions have similar
ideas.
Modern Realism
 From the Renaissance, Francis Bacon
developed induction, the scientific
method…based on Aristotle, developed a
method starting with observations,
culminating in generalization, tested in
specific instances for the purpose of
verification
 John Locke and tabula rasa, things known
from experience… ordered sense data and
then reflected on them
Goal of Education for
Realists
 Notions of the good life, truth,
beauty could be answered through
the study of ideas, using the
dialectical method…for
contemporary realists, the goal of
education is to help individuals
understand and apply the principles
of science to help solve the problems
plaguing the modern world
 Teachers should be steeped in the
Idealism and Realism
 Idealismviews the individual as
wanting to live in a perfect world of
high ideals, beauty, and art. Focuses
on truth as universal
 Realismviewed the world as
composed of natural laws that
provide regulation to all of nature
Pragmatism
PRAGMATISM: “prove yourself”
• approach that accesses the truth of
meaning or beliefs in terms of success of
their practical application. Solutions to
nursing problems can only be considered
if it can be applied.
• Task orientated. Physician directed.
Groups more important than individuals.
Pragmatism
 An American philosophy from the 19th
century…Peirce, James, Dewey
 “By their fruits, ye shall know them.”
Pragmatism encourages people to find
processes that work in order to achieve
their desired ends…action oriented,
experientially grounded
Rationalism
RATIONALISM: “understand yourself”
• reason rather than experience is the
foundation of knowledge. Opinions
and actions should be based on
reason and knowledge rather than
religious or emotional responses.
Existentialism and
Phenomenology
 Kierkegaard, Buber, Jaspers, Sartre, Maxine
Greene…existentialists
 Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty…
phenomenologists
 How do one’s concerns affect the lives of an
individual…the phenomena of
consciousness, perception and meaning in
an individual’s experience
Existentialists and
Phenomenologists
 Based on the earth alone, must make sense
of the chaos one encounters
 “Existence precedes essence.” People must
create themselves and create their own
meaning…done through the choices people
make in their lives, in a state of constant
becoming…an individual can make a
difference in a seemingly absurd world
Existentialists
 “choose yourself”
 Education should focus on the needs of
individuals, include the nonrational as well
as rational, the notion of possibility
 Teachers should understand their own “lived
world” and help students to understand
their world
 The need to be “wide awake”…the role of
the teacher is intensely personal
PHILOSOPHERS
 Florence Nightingale and Dorothea
Orem
 Socrates
 Aristotle
 Plato
 Confucius
 Kirligard
 Viktor Frankl
 Karl Marx
Nursing Science
Science – both process & a product
– described as a way of explaining
observed phenomena as well as a
system of gathering, verifying &
systematizing information about
reality.
 product: defined as empirical
observations knowledge that is
grounded & tested in experience & is
the result of investigative efforts

 process: characterized by systematic


inquiry that relies heavily on
empirical observations of the natural
world.
Science
 has come to represent knowledge, & it is generated
by the application of a variety of procedures or
methods to acquire knowledge
 6 characteristics of Science (by Silva Van Laer)
1. Science must show a certain coherence
2. Science is concerned with definite fields of
knowledge
3. Science is preferably expressed in universal
statements.
4. The statements of science must be true or probably
true.
5. The statements of science must be logically
ordered.
6. Science must explain its investigations &
arguments
Nursing Science
 Refers to the system of relationships of
human responses in health & illness
addressing biologic, behavioral, social,
& cultural domain.
– goal: to represent the nature of nursing –
to understand it and to explain it for the
benefit of humankind

 gives direction to the future generation


of nursing knowledge and provides the
knowledge for all aspects of nursing.
Pooh Bear on Philosophy

“When you are a Bear of Very Little


Brain,
and you Think of Things,
you find sometimes that a Thing which
seemed very Thingish inside you
is quite different
when it gets out into the open and has
other people looking at it.”
Winnie The Pooh (A. A. Milne)

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi