Virginia Henderson's Role For Nursing

“If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault of not of the disease, but of the nursing. I use the word nursing for want of a better” (Nightingale, 1860, p. 8). While Nightingale stressed the impact of one’s environment to promote healing, Virginia Henderson aimed to establish on the fundamental needs as a knowledge base to guide Professional nursing practice. Henderson emphasized on fourteen components required for effective nursing care which includes: breathing normally, eating and drinking adequately, elimination of body wastes, movement and posturing, sleep and rest, select suitable clothes-dress and undress, maintaining body temperature, keeping body clean and well groomed, avoiding dangers in the environment, communication, worship according to one’s faith, work accomplishments, play or participate in various forms of recreation, and learn, discover, or satisfy the curiosity (Fernandes et al., 2015). Her division of the fourteen components acknowledged patient needs with a holistic approach that is applied through the nursing process in a clinical setting.

Virginia Henderson’s contribution to the nursing profession has been very influential. One of her contributions is her well known definition of nursing which request the nurse to be an expert independent practitioner equipped with the right knowledge in basic nursing care to achieve the goals of proper patient care (McCrae, 2012). Her definition along with the fourteen basic needs brought huge changes in nursing practice. The fourteen fundamental needs gives support and assistance to provide proper nursing care. In addition, Henderson also understood the importance of using the nursing process, she stated as part of the nursing process, it was vital for the nurse to collect, analyze and develop an optimal plan of care to ensure the best quality of care and patient outcomes (McCrae, 2012). Henderson defined nursing as a concept. Henderson regarded person, health, environment and nursing as follows, Person: The patient is a person who needs support attaining independence and well-being or sometimes peaceful passing. The body and mind are one entity, not to be separated in care. Patient and

I am a recent baccalaureate graduate of Charleston Southern University. I received my Bachelor of Science in Nursing in May of 2015. On June 20, 2015, I received my NCLEX-RN results and became a registered nurse in the state of South Carolina. After considering my options for a graduate program, I happily accepted my offer from Case Western Reserve University and moved to Cleveland to pursue my graduate studies. Over the course of my undergraduate career, theories were included in the curriculum but not in depth. It is for this reason that I am excited to partake in this course – to learn the foundational and applicable theories of the nursing profession.

Conducting an interview with someone makes you see things in many different perspectives and in a new light. The person I interviewed saw nursing as a broader term that saw things in a different way even though she has just started. She knows that special people need to take roles in being a nurse. I interviewed my aunt, Ann Juknevicius. She is 30 years old and she has been a nurse for 2 years in Illinois now. Relatively she is a new nurse. One of the main reasons why I started the nursing program is because I look up to Annie a lot and she showed me so many different perspectives on how to look at people, different situations, and the way you handle things. I thought that it would be a great interview session to see if Annie’s expectations were the same as the nursing reality.

Alice Magaw was born November 9, 1860, in Cashocton, Ohio. Besides her contribution to nursing, little is known about Alice’s personal life and what inspired her to enter the field on nursing. However, one can guess that she saw a demand for nurses and had a passion for caring for others. During this time period, nursing schools were incorporated into hospitals. Alice Magaw attended the Women’s Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago from 1887 to1889, around the time that nursing began to transform from a lower class occupation to a respectable profession. After graduation Alice worked as a private duty nurse in Chicago. In 1893, Alice began her work under Dr. William J. and Charles H.

Time spent at my mother’s bedside in the intensive care unit changed my perception of the nursing profession. I realized what unique value was integrated in comprehensive nursing care, which was built on excellence, compassion, and respect. I knew right then and there that nursing was a professional path which I would like to take. Changing my college major to nursing was not a difficult decision – I wanted to repay for all that courteous care my family received in the most vulnerable time of our lives.

Nursing as a profession is an incredibly varied field, with as many opinions on how and why as there are nurses. It is therefore incumbent on each nurse to determine what aspects of nursing research and history will influence her practice. This work is presented as a Professional Nursing Mission Statement for the author. In the following pages, the governing bodies, ethical code, professional traits, nursing theorist and theory, and historical figure that guide personal nursing practice are presented with scenarios demonstrating their effects. Providing the building blocks for an individual approach to nursing will result in a deeper understanding of practice.

A nursing theory allows the nursing profession to define and differentiate nursing care practice from other professional disciplines. The work of Patricia Benner has been crucial in setting a stage to standardize education and career progression for the nursing profession. The nursing care practice has been changing exponentially since the development of the theory From Novice to Expert. It has enabled facilities across the nation to achieve a higher level of patient care due to its ability to identify the needs of each of the stages of a professional nurse’s career progression.

Imogene King was born in 1921in Iowa. Growing up, she dreamed of being a teacher but began nursing school to escape her small town life. She graduated with a diploma in nursing in 1945, then three years later earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education and worked as medical-surgical instructor and an assistant director at St. John’s School of Nursing until 1958, fulfilling her lifelong dream of being a teacher wither nursing career. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing in 1957 and a doctorate in education in 1961 (Imogene King, 2011). King then became an associate professor at Loyola University in Chicago and formed a master’s degree program that was based on her nursing concepts, which later became the framework for her theory.

I have read and understand the plagiarism policy as outline in the syllabus and the section in the Catalog relating to the IWU Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I certify that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act/s, which include expulsion from Indian Wesleyan University.

MSN, RN, the 2004 recipient of the Mary Mahoney Award. “I first had heard about her before I

In 1947, shortly after graduating with her Master’s in nursing, Dorothea Orem accepted a position with the Indiana State Board of Health, where she first thought of her theory of nursing. She left that position to work at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), the predecessor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from 1957-1959. While at HEW, she took on the role of curriculum consultant and was tasked with the improvement of nurse training through curriculum development (Johnson & Webber, 2010). It was Orem’s role in this project that provided the impetus for her nursing theories as she began to explore the connections between nursing, education, and self-care. Taylor (2011) notes that Orem’s first published article,

This paper seeks to expand upon the 2010 Institute of Medicine’s report on the future of nursing, leading change, advancing health and illustrating its impact on nursing education, practice and leadership. There is an ongoing transformation in the healthcare system necessitated by the need to achieve a patient centered care in the community, public, and primary care settings in contrast to previous times. Nurses occupying vital roles in the healthcare system, need improvements in the areas mentioned above to

Like any scientific discipline, the nursing profession has evolved over time. Nurses, once regarded as housemaids and lower class citizens, now hold positions of authority and stature in our modern society. These changes in the profession are attributed to the many nurse theorists who devoted their lives to the improvement of patient care. Through their theoretical advancements, the public perception of nursing has gone from dismissive to reverential. Today, our culture considers the nursing profession to be one of the most rewarding and respected career paths an individual can pursue. Through a review of one such patient theorist, Dorothea Orem, one can witness this change in the perception of the nursing profession. As a first semester student in a professional nursing course of study, Orem has already influenced my personal nursing philosophy.

The roles and functions of nurses have a very fascinating history and have evolved since the 19th century. Landale (1895), in her letter to the editor of the Nursing Record and Hospital World gave us a glimpse of what a nurse should be during that period. Referring to a nurse as a woman in uniform, it gave us an idea that nursing was a female dominated vocation and not to be treated as an economical occupation for financial gain. Landale (1895) placed an emphasis on the characteristic of being a servant and being devoted to service in order to be a nurse who was worthy of the uniform.