Structure of Nursing Knowledge

1. Structure Level ( Analysis of theory, clarity, simplicity,

generality, accessibility, importance).

2. Metaparadigm ( Person, Health, Environment,

Structure of Nursing).

3. Philosophy
Nursing 4. Conceptual models
Knowledge 5. Theory

6. Middle range theory

 § Structure level presents the structure and
analysis of specialized nursing knowledge.
§ Structure of knowledge that was used to
1. Structure organize the units of the text and the
level definitions of the analysis criteria used for
the review process of the theoretical works.
 § Analysis, critique and evaluation are methods used to
study nursing theoretical works critically.

§ Analysis of theory is carried out to acquire knowledge

of theoretical adequacy .

§ It is a important process and the first step in applying

nursing theoretical works to education research,
A. Analysis of administration or practice.

Theory § Analysis process is useful for learning about the works

and is essential for nurse scientist who intend to test,
expand, or extend the works.

§ Understanding theoretical framework is vital to

applying it in practice.
 § It speaks to the meaning of term used,
and definitional consistency and structure
speak to the consistent structural form of
terms in the theory.
§ Words have multiple meanings within and
B. Clarity across disciplines; therefore a word
should be defined specifically according
to the framework ( Philosophy, conceptual
model, theory, or middle range theory).
 § It is highly valued in nursing theory development.
§ It discuss the degrees of simplicity and call for
simple forms of theory, such as middle range, to
guide practice.
§ Complex practice situation may call for more
C. Simplicity complex theory.
§ A theory should be sufficient, comprehensive,
presented at a level of abstraction to provide
guidance, and have as few concepts possible with
a simplistic relation as possible to aid clarity.
 § It speaks to the scope of application and
the purpose within the theory ( Chinn &
Krammer, 2015).
§ Understanding the levels of abstraction
D. Generality by doctors students and nurse scientist
has facilitated the use of abstract
frameworks and the development of
middle-range theories.
 § “ Accessible addresses the extent to
which empiric indicators for the concepts
can be identified and to what extent the
purposes of the theory can be attained”
§ It is vital to developing nursing research
E. Accessibility to test theory. It facilitate testing, because
the empirical indicators provide linkage
too practice for test ability and ultimate
use of theory to describe and test aspects
of practice (Chinn&Krammer,2015).
 § “Does this theory create
understanding that is important
to nursing?”. Because research,
theory, and practice are closely
related, nursing theory lends
F. Importance
itself to research testing and
research testing leads itself to
knowledge of practice.
2.Metaparadigm

§ The broad conceptual

boundaries of the discipline of
nursing, human beings,
environment, and health
 § It is referred to the person as a patient.
§ Nurses performed task to and for the patient and
controlled the patient’s environment to enhance
recovery.

§ Nightingale described a passive patient in this

relationship. However, specific references are made to
the patient performing self care when possible and, in
particular, being involved in the timing and substance
Person of meals.
 § Health, a dynamic process, is the synthesis of wellness
and illness and is defined by the perception of the
client across the life span. This view focuses on the
entire nature of the client in physical, social, aesthetic,
and moral realms. Health is contextual and relational.
Wellness, in this view, is the lived experience of
congruence between one’s possibilities and one’s
realities and is based on caring and feeling cared for.
Health Illness is defined as the lived experience of loss or
dysfunction that can be mediated by caring
relationships. Inherent in this conceptualization is each
client’s approach to stress and coping. The degree or
level of health is an expression of the mutual interactive
process between human beings and their environment.
 § Environment is the landscape and geography of human social
experience, the setting or context of experience as everyday life
and includes variations in space, time and quality. This geography
includes personal, social, national, global, and beyond. Environment
also includes societal beliefs, values, mores, customs, and
expectations. The environment is an energy field in mutual process
with the human energy field and is conceptualized as the arena in
which the nursing client encounters aesthetic beauty, caring
relationships, threats to wellness and the lived experiences of health.
Dimensions that may affect health include physical, psychosocial,

Environment cultural, historical and developmental processes, as well as the

political and economic aspects of the social world.
 § Nursing is an academic discipline and a practice profession. It is the
art and science of holistic health care guided by the values of human
freedom, choice, and responsibility. Nursing science is a body of
knowledge arrived at through theory development, research, and
logical analysis. Nursing and other supporting theories are essential to
guide and advance nursing practice. The art of nursing practice,
actualized through therapeutic nursing interventions, is the creative use
of this knowledge in human care. Nurses use critical thinking and
clinical judgment to provide evidence-based care to individuals,
families, aggregates, and communities to achieve an optimal level of

Nursing
client wellness in diverse nursing settings/contexts. Clinical judgment
skills are therefore essential for professional nursing practice.