Creating a Concept Map

Conceptual Components of Theory

Conceptual Information on the General System Theory

As evident from various scholars and practice, caring has been a central part of the nursing practice. Various theories exist relating to caring attributes of nurses. Swanson's Theory of Caring has been selected for this discussion. The theory focuses on teaching educating and healing during the pregnancy period. The theory is derived from phenomenological researches in three perinatal nursing cases. Also, it provides a definition of caring as well as the processes or categories that distinguish caring. In this theory, caring was evaluated in three distinctive perinatal contexts. The first case caring offered to women who had miscarried, the second one is caring provided by parents and professionals to the newborn babies in the intensive care unit, and the final context was the caring as recalled socially endangered parents who have been receiving long-term, intensive public nursing intervention (Swanson, 1991, p. 162).

In the first study, Swanson examined the caring behaviors of others which the women who had miscarried would consider helpful. Twenty women who had miscarried were interviewed in the first study. In the second study, Swanson examined what would be a provider of care in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. In this second study, data was collected for a period of one year through participants’ observation as well as thirty-three interviews. The third study involved a caring and clinical nursing model in which sixty-eight mothers were interviewed. The plan for caring as proposed by Swanson's Theory encompass five processes which include knowing, being with, doing for, enabling and maintain belief (Swanson, 1991, P. 163).

Measurement and Observation of the Components

The components of the middle-range theory of caring give insight into on how families and health caregivers, particularly nurses, offer support particularly for women who have miscarried. Also, the theory offers insight into the healing process that is needed to provide closure (Kalfoss & Owe, 2015). In practice, the Swanson's theory is applied in nurses how to help the family emotionally and physically during the delivery or healing process. This is due to the fact that the theory incorporates adaptive methods that can be utilized in the healing process (McEwin & Wills, 2014). An example is a case of the nurses entering the Labor and Delivery who have little awareness on how to deal with miscarriages or stillborn births (McEwin & Wills, 2014. With training based on the Swanson's theory, the nurses can find it easier to eliminate nervousness and offer support to the women and other patients in their time of need. Also, Swanson's theory advocates for emotional presence in the process of understanding a situation. In practice, this involves handling the patient as they would do themselves if they had the ability (Gray, Grove & Sutherland, 2017). This facilitates patients to transition through life situation which is unfamiliar to them.

Theory and Changes in the Nursing Practice

Defining caring and its conceptual components is an ongoing challenge in the nursing discipline. Perkins et al. (2007) underline the need for distinctive nursing language. The Swanson's concepts have been supported by other researchers through empirical findings to construct validity of the Swanson's theory. The theory has developed over the years to facilitate individual descriptive components of each of the processes, but their five components remain the same. A classic example of such development is the incorporation of helping to find meaning in the process of maintaining belief (Kalfoss & Owe, 2015). This includes understanding affirming the patient's experience and the meaning that they derive from it.

References

Gray, J.R., Grove, S.K., & Sutherland, S. (2017). Burns and Grove’s the practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.

Kalfoss, M., & Owe, J. (2015). Empirical Verification of Swanson’s Caring Processes Found in Nursing Actions: Systematic Review. Open Journal of Nursing, 5(11), 976. DOI: 10.4236/ojn.2015.511104

McEwin, M., & Wills, E.M. (2014). Theoretical basis for nursing. (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Perkins, M., Jensen, P., Jaccard, J., Gollwitzer, P., Oettingen, G., Pappadopulos, E., & Hoagwood, K. (2007). Applying theory-driven approaches to understanding and modifying clinicians' behavior: what do we know? Psychiatric Services, 58(3), 342–348. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.58.3.342

Swanson, K. M. (1991). Empirical development of a middle range theory of caring. Nursing research, 40(3), 161-165. Retrieved from: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org