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The Theory Of Nursing Practice Essay

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Theory in Nursing Practice “Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. Remember he is face to face with his enemy all the time, internal wrestling with him” (Nightingale, 1992, p. 22). Fortunately, in the nineteenth century, Florence Nightingale recognized uncertainty could cause harm to her patients (Nightingale, 1992). Equally important to the nursing professional are the nursing theorists, their work, and the evolution of the theories that followed Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing (Alligood, 2014). This paper will apply Florence Nightingale’s grand theory, Merle Mishel’s uncertainty in illness theory, and Madeleine Leininger’s culture care theory to multiple sclerosis (MS) research and practice (Alligood, 2014). Nursing is a complex art and science (Joel, 2006). Consequently, one nursing theory does not fit every patient’s or individual’s need. While nursing theories encompass many different beliefs, policies, and procedures, nurses choose from many theories and can utilize some, all, or none of the concepts of a theory. Furthermore, nursing theory provides nurses with principles and helps generate further nursing knowledge (Alligood, 2014). To gain a better understanding of MS in practice, theory, challenges, and trends, Merle Mishel’s uncertainty in illness theory will be compared and contrasted to Florence Nightingale and Madeleine Leininger’s theories. Part 1: Theory

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