Development of Nursing theory

Defining theory is the first step towards developing the nursing theory.

Defining theory is the first step towards developing a set of criteria for the evaluation of theory.

Many of the early definitions of theory in the nursing literature were influenced by the Logical Positivistic Received View (Suppe, 1977), where the focus was on structure and process.

Ex.1.McKay (1969) defines theory as “a logically interrelated set of confirmed hypotheses” (p. 394)and Jacox (1974) defines it as “a systematically related set of statements including law-like generalizations that are empirically testable” (p. 324).

These definitions are consistent with the Received View philosophy on theory at the time.

Many authors have used the term theory as interchangeable with such terms as conceptual framework, conceptual model, model, and paradigm.

Fawcett (1989) clearly states that “conceptual models and theories are clearly distinguished by their levels of abstraction and thus must be used in different ways” .

She defines nursing theory as “a relatively specific and concrete set of concepts and propositions that purports to account for or characterize phenomena of interest to the discipline of nursing”