Nursing Theory --- Epiphany

I had a vision of sorts today. Admittedly, it was sort of a weird vision, but it's probably the closest thing I've had to a true epiphany, a paradigm shift perhaps.

We were doing nursing theory presentations in our Professional Seminar class today, and all of the sudden, it dawned on me.

For the last probably 6 months, from the end of the Associate's Program until now, I have struggled with the definition and role of nursing. Are we the doctors' servants? If so, then why do we work just as closely with social workers and therapists?

The answer is NURSING THEORY! Nurses do not just deal with medical conditions, we help our patients achieve integration with their environments. That means helping them through family disputes, money problems, and explaining their medications. Roy, Neuman, and many other theorists have worked very hard to give us this vision of nursing.

I was brought up on Neuman. I did not see its significance at first. By studying Roy, it's like learning a second language. When you're a child, you don't understand the complexity of English, but when you learn French, you see all of the aspects of the language you took for granted. I have seen that nursing theory is there to tell us who we are, and establish our true identity as the ultimate patient care profession.