Content includes the subject matter of a theory; this comprises the stable components that are
acted on or that do the acting
Process implies
... [Show More] the action part of the theory, the intervention elements.
In addition to these elements, all theories should be examined for certain common factors:
Theories should be based on concepts and propositions
Theories should be specific to the nursing context Theories can be applied to many situations
Theories should be relevant to potential users
Theories should be easy to define it in operational terms
Theories should correspond with empirical findings Theories should demonstrate internal consistency.
Florence Nightingale made the first attempts at theory-based nursing during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. She organized a group of women to deliver care under her supervision and that of war surgeons.
She established the need for hygiene, with environmental change as the means to enhance healing. For
her, the nursing domain was the patient and the environment in which care was offered. Her goals were to
expose the unhealthy conditions of soldiers, to gain support for the need for nurses, and to achieve formal
education for nurses. She was the first to use data collection and analysis to prove efficacy of nursing
actions.
Theory is defined as "an organized, coherent, and systematic articulation of a set of statements related to
significant questions in a discipline that are communicated in a meaningful whole; a symbolic depiction of
aspects of reality that are discovered or invented for describing, explaining, predicting, or prescribing
responses, events, situations, conditions, or relationships" (Meleis, 1997, pp. 8,12)1. Thus, a theory is a
coherent set of propositions and statements that describe (factor-isolating), explain (factor-relating), and
predict (situation- relating) phenomena as well as prescribe (situation-producing) actions toward goals.
(Dickoff et al., 1968)
Theory development requires perceiving phenomena that are peculiar to nursing and proposing
meaningful explanation for these perceptions. The nursing profession identifies four levels of theory—
metatheory, grand theory, middle range theory, and practice theory. The theories are classified based on
their levels of abstraction or complexity.
A complete structure includes a conceptual model, derived theories, and correlated empirical research
methods. Each conceptual model and theory is comprised of concepts and propositions. The complete
structure forms a hierarchy that is based on levels of abstraction.
Most abstract: the conceptual model that provides the context or frame of reference for theorygenerating and theory-testing research
Intermediate level: the theory that is generated or tested
Most concrete: the empirical research methods used to collect and analyze the data
Meleis, A. I. (1997). Theoretical nursing: develo [Show Less]