Nursing theories have been used in nursing practice, including clinical practice, patient care, and nursing research. In most cases, nursing theory-guided practice helps move the nursing profession forward into the next century and improve the quality of care delivered to patients. Additionally, the different application of nursing theories has demonstrated improved patient outcomes through patient-centered care (Hoeck & Delmar, 2018). Moreover, nursing theory aims at describing, predicting, and explaining the nursing phenomenon by providing a foundation for practice for guidance for knowledge and practice development (Roy, 2018). This article illustrates the purpose of applying nursing theory in patient care, its meaning in current practice, applying the theories before planning and providing care, and demonstrating how my theory of nursing practice has been helpful for planning and providing care to patients. Nursing theory helps in nursing research and promotes safe practice aimed at delivering patient-centered care and improved patient outcomes through best-practice care that impacts their lives beyond the bedside. Nursing Theories and Patient Care Nursing theories provide a foundation for nursing practice and are significant to patient care. Most nursing institutions and nurses apply different nursing theories within their everyday practice, even without knowing it. The theories are essential in providing bedside care for evaluating patient care and providing base nursing interventions to evaluate findings. Additionally, nursing theories can be instrumental in making decisions that are relevant to current practice. For instance, some religions do not believe in blood transfusion. Therefore, anurse would use Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Theory to assist the patient since it allows the patient to express control and independence in caring for themselves (Olubiyi et al., 2019). In this case, the nurse would understand the need to respect the patient’s choice. Nevertheless, they can always relate with other theories that ensure the patient makes informed decisions and engages best practices when providing quality care.Meaning in Current Practice Nursing theories are instrumental to helping nurses in understanding their roles and purpose inthe healthcare setting, guides knowledge development through nursing research, and assist managers, patients, and other stakeholders to understand and acknowledge the unique contributions that nurses bring to care. Nurse scholars, advanced practice nurses, and nurse educators are often equipped with current nursing theories and their impact on nursing. Therefore, nursing theories are currently used to guide nursing practice at the bedside and in academia. Florence Nightingale’s Environmental Theory identified the environmental factors that hinder health and well-being, including pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, and light (Gilbert, 2020). Therefore, the theory suggests that a healthy environment is required to facilitate the healing process. Such theories continue to engrave the interrelationship between nursing theory and patient care in a current diverse practice environment
4the treatment plan and the patient’s needs. Additionally, the nurses can use the theory to assessthe self-care requirements the patient needs for healing. Therefore, nurses often select different theories that fit their style of practice and the patient’s needs Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring best reflects my personal views of the essence of nursing. The theory asserts that caring regenerates life energies and potentiates the nurse’s abilities (Gürcan & Turan, 2021). I believe that caring is mutually beneficial for the patient and the provider. Therefore, working in a collaborative multidisciplinary team with specific goals of improving patient outcomes is essential to my practiceConclusionNursing theories are used in clinical practice, patient care, and nursing research to promote patient-centered care and best practices that go beyond the bedside. Nurse scholars, advanced practice nurses, and nurse educators use current research and best practices to initiate and provide care concurrent with current problems. In my opinion, Jean Watson’s theory of Human Caring is the best for practice because it fulfills the patient and provider’s goals for care