Team Jordan
NUR 532: Week 2 Discussion Response
13 September 2013
Nursing Theory, Research, and Practice Response
As noted in the lead group’s forum, “through observation, [Florence Nightingale] collected empirical evidence that supported her environmental theory and used it to develop evidence-based guidelines that other nurses faced with similar circumstances might find useful” (Selanders, 2010). Nightingale, in essence, was a pioneer to evidence-based nursing practice. She focused on the patient’s symptoms and examined possible environmental causes of these symptoms to steer the care given. McCurry, Revell, and Roy (2009) state that “nursing as a profession has a social mandate to contribute to the good of society through knowledge-based practice” (p. 42). No moves, however, can be made without a vision, or a formulation of what is wanted as the end result.
This vision starts the process of producing a thought, or a philosophy; which can advance to a theory. Silva (1977) examines the research process by exploring the relationships among philosophy, science and theory. As a result of this analysis, she suggests that all nursing theory …show more content…
This is supported by advances in other fields, such as mathematics, that rely on reasoning, experience and logic and not solely on observation or experimentation. As a result, philosophical intuition can complement the scientific method and serve as another valid and promising means to obtain nursing knowledge. These steps are all intertwined to form future nursing care. Knowledge is built upon theories, for as Lauden (1984) noted, “problems constitute the questions of science, but theories constitute the answers” (McCurry et. al 2009, pg.