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Over the past decade, there are various seemingly forgettable aspects under nursing education, for example, the importance of nursing theory (Moghaddasian et al., 2013). A nursing theory can be derived from nursing models or specific disciplines as a set of propositions, assumptions, relationships, and definitions or concepts that can be used to offer descriptions, explanations, predictions or prescriptions. During the derivation process of nursing theories, for example, Need Theory, theorists use the support of two principles, namely deductive and inductive reasoning. Nursing theories are used to explain or describe a certain phenomenon termed as nursing, by organizing the relationship between different concepts of the practice. The Need Theory, also called “The Nightingale of Modern Nursing,” was formulated by Virginia Henderson. Josefina (2017) asserts that the theory was based on practice and her level of education, the theory provides a definition that distinguishes nursing from medicine in general. The Need Theory emphasizes the need of allowing clients to be independent so that to enhance their healing progress after hospitalization. This paper-based essay elaborates and summarizes the importance of Need Theory as well as providing the use of the theory in the nursing practice.

The relevance of Nursing Theory

            The study of nursing theories should be incorporated in Masters Programs since theoretical foundations play an essential role in advanced nursing education. Presently, the incorporation of nursing theories in nursing education is underlined by the role played in the increasing emphasis on research, such as evidence-based practice (EBP) as a requirement for the advanced practice nurse. Theories also provide an important explanation for different phenomena and paradigms that are crucial in research considering they are based on the diversity in nursing (Ziebarth, 2014).  The use of nursing theories in Masters Programs also enables nurse practitioner graduates to be able to demonstrate the required levels of competencies so that to provide optimal care in a dynamic healthcare system. Besides, nursing theory is beneficial to the nursing profession as it provides structures that can be used in the provision of inspiration and direction that can prove to be essential to the practice in general. This profession derives conceptual bases from the different nursing theories, further; these theories provide the foundation and the precedence that supports the formation of various schools of nursing. Nursing theories also are responsible for the logical structures of assumptions, hypotheses, and ideas that are useful in different instances.

            Nursing theories can also be essential in separating nursing as a profession from other healthcare professions considering nursing as a practice majorly concentrates on outcomes and care. These theories are created by professional nurses; as a result, the content they possess is mainly made up of concepts that are relevant to nursing as a practice. The theories in other healthcare professions tend to focus on patients as well; however, they do not solely provide views on patients’ optimal care. Younas and Sommer (2015) assert that various concerns have been raised regarding the use of nursing theories in the nursing practice. The application of nursing theories in the practice possesses some level of ambiguity because all aspects of nursing care are not covered in respective theories. These theories focus on specific areas of needs and care within the practice; hence some essential areas remain uncovered. For example, the Self Care Theory by Dorothea Orem fails to define areas of public education, the nurse-society relations, and family, despite this issues being essential in the provision of optimal care.

The Need Theory

            This theory is often referred to as "the Nightingale of Modern Nursing," it defines the exclusive emphasis on the nursing practice. It was formulated by Virginia Henderson based on practice and experience in the medical field initially published in 1966, with the latest version being published in 1991. The theory majorly focused on the relevance of ensuring patients are independent so that to support their progress while in the hospital. In this theory, Henderson creates an emphasis on the importance of basic needs as well as the role that nurse can play in ensuring that those needs are met. Henderson's Need Theory contains four basic assumptions that are: (1) Nurses are to provide patients with optimal care until they can look after themselves. (2) Patients always wish to regain their better health. (3) Nurses are ready to fulfill their duties. (4) Henderson held the belief that “the mind and body are a single component that cannot be separated” (Moghaddasian et al., 2013). Henderson’s theory development is dependent on her emphasis that under nursing practice human needs maintains the core relevance. 

In her theory, Henderson identifies four significant aspects that include nursing, health, the environment, and the individual.  Josefina (2017) affirms that among the basic needs of individuals is health. Individuals require being assisted so that they can achieve independence and health, as well as peaceful death. Conversely, the environment provides individuals with the conditions to learn about the forms of living, the environment influences life. The nursing practice offers individuals with primary care so that they can be independent in taking part in the models fourteen outlined components. Henderson's Need Theory can potentially be used within student's selected Master's Track such as nurse practitioner. The fourteen components of the model provide an approach that is holistic since it covers different aspects of the practice, for example, the social, spiritual, psychological, and physiological. The theory defines health as the ability of an individual to prove they can function independently as per the requirements of the fourteen components. Henderson emphasizes that it is the responsibility of nurses to ensure that patients are provided with optimal care considering good health is susceptible to different factors such as emotional balance, age, and so on.

Application of the Need Theory

            The Need Theory has been applied in nursing education, as the theory contributes to the profession forming the basis of the formation of nursing schools. According to Ziebarth (2014), Henderson added to the nursing education through re-defining the term nurse to mean an individual with the capacity to act and provide primary nursing care considering they boost of the right knowledge. The field of nursing education has benefitted from the Need Theory and more so from the fourteen outlined components of good health. The theory has brought about adequate advancements most especially in the teaching of ways that nurses can intervene given specific disease conditions. Below are two examples from scholarly literature that outline the application of Need Theory in nursing education.

            According to Younas and Sommer (2015), the nursing curriculum has greatly borrowed from the fourteen fundamental components outlined in the Need Theory. These components are used in teaching nursing students on how to efficiently manage patient care as well as the fundamentals of the nursing process. The nursing process is postulated in the Henderson's Need Theory, and nurses are provided with the skills to create care plans and be able to develop effective strategies that can be used in patient care case studies. The use Henderson theory in nursing education is underlined by the role played in the increasing emphasis on research. The incorporation of the concepts of this theory in nursing education has ensured that nurse practitioners avoid the possibility of providing patients with low quality of routine care.

            Moghaddasian et al. (2013) affirm that some part of the nursing education has been designed from the Need Theory. The application of this theory has ensured that students have progressed through learning. The theory provides the grounds by which nurse students are taught on how to provide the needed assistance required by patients, the knowledge on how to perform specific activities or in being able to carry out the prescribed therapy so that to ensure the patient regains better health. The application of this theory in the nursing curriculum has been used to teach the students to be fully involved and appreciate the importance of studying specific patient needs. Further, the theory has been utilized in teaching students on how they can develop the habit of inquiry so that to ensure that they provide adequate care.   

            This paper-based essay elaborates and summarizes the importance of Need Theory as well as providing the application of the theory in the nursing practice. The Need Theory majorly focused on the relevance of ensuring patients are independent so that to support their progress while in the hospital. In this theory, Henderson creates an emphasis on the importance of basic needs as well as the role that nurse can play in ensuring that those needs are met. The theory has been applied nursing education, as the theory contributes to the profession forming the basis of the formation of nursing schools (Josefina, 2017). Besides, I realized that the study of the theory reveals that nursing is a universal occupation and the use of theories in nursing education allows the practice to flourish. Nursing education ensures that practitioners gain advanced knowledge as well as confidence so that to act as independent entities with unique skills in the provision of optimal care.

References

Josefina, A. (2017). Lessons learned through nursing theory. The Peer Reviewed Journal of Clinical Excellence, 47(2), 41-42. doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000511808.68087.e3

Moghaddasian, S., Dizaji, L., & Mokhtar, M. (2013). Nurses Empathy and Family Need in the Intensive Care Units. Journal of Caring Sciences, 2(3), 197-201. doi:10.5681/jcs.2013.024

Younas, A., & Sommer, J. (2015). Integrating Nursing Theory and Process into Practice; Virginia’s Henderson Need Theory. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 8(2), 443-449.

Ziebarth, D. (2014). Evolutionary Conceptual Analysis: Faith Community Nursing. Journal of Religion and Health, 53(6), 1817-1837. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24485286