Nursing theories represent frameworks that professionals can use in their practice to provide care that shows respect for patients and improves their outcomes. They help distinguish nursing as a distinct discipline that is separate from medicine and other related sciences, assisting nurses in understanding the unique needs of their patients (Mudd et al., 2020). When teaching nurses the core principles of their practice, the understanding of the intersections of nursing, patients, health, and the environment that is embedded within nursing theories allows for simplifying the ever-changing relationship that nurses encounter within their profession.
For the purposes of the current discussion, the focus is placed on Hundergard Peplau’s Environmental Theory and Dorothy Johnson’s Behavioral Theory. The purpose of each of the mentioned theories of nursing is to provide practical recommendations for implementing meaningful actions within the nursing field. The theories can be used separately or in conjunction with one another in cases when the application of only one theory cannot be beneficial. This paper will critically discuss the two theories and assess their application in nursing practice. Besides, it is necessary to reflect on the way in which the theories will affect personal experiences as a nursing professional.
The innovations in contemporary nursing and the application of theoretical concepts by other authors, such as Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, Harry Sullivan, and Neil Miller, led Peplau to develop her own theory of psychodynamic care based on interpersonal relationships between patients and nursing professionals. The progress of this theory was based on the study of other important works on human behavior and the functioning of the psyche. In addition, the theorist intertwined them with his personal and professional experience in her field of activity.
Hildegard Peplau’s Environmental Theory, commonly referred to as the Theory of Interpersonal Relations, underlines that nurse-patient relationships must pass through three phases such as orientation, working, and termination. At the orientation stage, patients who have been hospitalized realize that they require assistance to adjust to their current experiences within a new setting. Thus, the role of the nurse is to note the unique needs and priorities of the patients while assuming that they are strangers who should be treated with “the respect and positive interest accorded a stranger” (Hagerty et al., 2017, p. 161). In the next phase of working, nurses spend the most time with patients.
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The practitioners are expected to get more familiar with them and should start accepting nurses as health educators, resource persons, counselors, and care providers. Notably, at this point, through the therapeutic form of communication, nurses will provide non-judgmental and reflective feedback to patients for them to clarify their thoughts (Hagerty et al., 2017). The final termination phase, which entails discharge planning, is contingent on how well nurses and patients communicated at the previous stages. Nurses are expected to teach patients how they can effectively handle their symptoms and engage in successful recovery at home.
Johnson believed that illness, and lifestyle changes, can unbalance the subsystems of human behavior. Nursing care should be aimed at restoring balance. To determine the direction of the intervention, it is necessary to assess the patient’s condition with respect to each subsystem. This assessment is carried out in two stages: determine whether the behavior of the patient suggests an imbalance in any subsystem; and determine the causes of this violation (organic or functional). According to the author’s definition, the role of a nurse is complementary to the role of a doctor but does not depend on it. The nurse is assigned the role of a specialist who restores the balance of the patient’s behavioral subsystems during a psychological or physical crisis.
The theory advocates for the efficient and effective behavioral functioning of patients for preventing illness. The patient is considered a behavioral system comprised of several subsystems, which include affiliative, dependency, ingestive, eliminative, sexual, aggressive, and achievement (Aşkar and Ovayolu, 2022). The three functional requirements of every of the mentioned subsystems entail protection from harmful influences, the establishme
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