This theory is appropriate to my future practice setting as an advanced practice nurse (APN) caring for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in an outpatient patient hemodialysis facility. This theory is applicable within my practice setting because “meeting patient needs of respiration, nutrition, elimination, body mechanics, rest, and sleep, keeping clean and well groomed, controlling the environment, communication, human relations, work, play, and worship (Butts & Rich, p. 614), are all advanced nursing care that I will need to provide for my patient’s basic needs.
The common problems outlined by Virginia Henderson’s need-based theory include 14 components of fundamental nursing care and interventions that patients have or use as part of their independence and ADLs (Butts & Rich, p. 598). As a future APRN, the common resolved problems are 14 components that maintain the patient’s physical functions, safety, a sense of well-being, and finding oneself about where they see themselves in life (Butts & Rich, p. 615). As for advanced practice nursing fields,
Virginia Henderson was a proponent for nurses to be independent practitioners Ahtisham, Y., & Jacoline (2015), as well as well-defined concepts and propositions that characterize any theory or nursing model, Henderson’s need theory. It is not enough for nurses to care for patients and educate them. Ndiok & Ncama (2018) specify that Henderson focused on individual care through the prism of 14 components that explain the nursing role and preferred actions to preserve health. The nursing need theory aims to introduce a unique focus on nursing and prove its appropriateness.
A patient needs autonomy in personal care, and a nurse is a person for professional assistance (Fernandes et al., 2019). In terms of the chosen model, all the fourteen needs of patients may be divided into four groups, including biological or physiological, moral or spiritual, psychological, and social (Fernandes et al., 2019). DNP-815A Topic 2 DQ 2 What are the key concepts and components of the nursing theory that you selected and how are they defined?
According to (Fernandes et al., 2019), there are seventeen assumptions of the Needs theory that were implicated in Henderson’s theory. Nurses must assist people with illnesses; nurses must collaborate within an interdisciplinary team and become independent professionally from the physician; 14 concepts of nursing describe patient needs and complete nursing functions; DNP-815A Topic 2 DQ 2 What are the key concepts and components of the nursing theory that you selected and how are they defined?
goals are achieved with a symbiotic relationship between patient and nurse with health promotion as the nurse’s primary goal; patient and family are one with mind and body being one within the person; assist patient with independence while the patient controls their physiological and psychological harmony; people function in health at all times and must maintain independence and relationships; people maintain health status with knowledge and awareness; illness effects environment conditions and nurses should maintain a safe environment;
nurses must be culturally competent and must maintain best practice methods while relying on evidence-based research methods. These are all relevant elements to me as an APRN as these can be used to assess my patient’s independence level and to assess the patient’s assistance in obtaining or maintaining activities of daily living for basic needs (Fernandes et al., 2019). Being an APRN in the outpatient dialysis center, Virginia Henderson’s needs theory applies to my discipline of nursing and various practice scopes.
Utilizing this theory and putting it into action within the practice is adaptable and allows one to reflect on their nursing competency when it involves maintaining a person’s health promotion and independence level. As stated by Durepos, P. et al. (2015), with Henderson’s philosophy of applying best practice methods that involve evidence-based research, advanced practice application of theory can be a foundation for the nursing process. DNP-815A Topic 2 DQ 2 What are the key concepts and components of the nursing theory that you selected and how are they defined?
Ahtisham, Y., & Jacoline, S. (2015). Integrating nursing theory and process into practice; Virginia’s Henderson needs theory. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 8(2), 443-450.
Butts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (Eds.). (2018). Philosophies and theories for advanced nursing practice (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett. ISBN-13: 9781284112245
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