Chapter Questions
Comment on this statement that is often heard: "I have practiced (or taught) nursing for many years without the need to use theory, so why do I need theory in a practice discipline?"
How did you come to define theory, nursing, human beings, and health? What values and assumptions do these definitions hold, and what courses of action are dictated by those values?
What theories guided you in your assessment of your patients, in your research projects, and in your teaching methods? Why did you select these theories? How congruent are the ontological beliefs of these theories with your own? With those of the discipline of nursing?
What criteria did you use in selecting or rejecting theories to guide your actions? Are these the same as, or different from, those criteria used in selecting or rejecting nursing theories?
In what ways do you demonstrate your critical assessment of progress in theoretical and scientific nursing? Are these critiques illuminated by a true understanding of daily experiences of members of the discipline? Are these critiques guided by a nursing perspective? (Then respond to this question again after reading Chapter 18.)
What is your own conception of a nursing perspective, and in what ways does this conception match or not match with your practice environment (or curricular framework)?