A nursing theory that applies to my future role as a nurse educator is Parse’s Human Becoming Theory. Parse theorizes that quality of life is the goal of nursing care, and that humans are an open system constantly evolving as they interact with their environment (Donohue-Porter et al., 2017). This theory applies to educating nursing students because it can be applied to helping students to become nurses, not just on restoring health to a patient. The theory emphasizes the importance of non-verbal communication and nursing presence as opposed to nursing intervention (Donohue-Porter et al., 2017). When educating future nurses, there is more to teach them than just the clinical knowledge required to be a nurse. The focus on how to be a caring, compassionate, present nurse is often lost in the teaching of information needed to pass the nursing board exam, but is just as important as clinical knowledge.
In my current practice as a nurse manager, I teach nurses who are new to hospice how to complete an admission assessment and visit. I have always felt that it is easier to teach a nurse the clinical side of completing a hospice assessment than it is to teach them how to read the mood of a room and decide which questions to ask a patient first. Parse’s theory reinforces the idea that teaching nurses is about both aspects of learning, and both are of equal importance. I also teach new hospice nurses how to approach the topic of end of life conversations with patients who are just starting to consider hospice. I often spend more time teaching the importance of tone, word choice, and speed of the conversation than I do teaching what specifically should be said during these conversations. Parse identifies the importance of non-verbal communication in her theory, and this is often what patients remember most when they provide feedback to our agency about their interactions with our nurses. I have found that the nurses who are able to master the subtleties of verbal communication are often much more effective in their conversations with patients. These nurses also tend to be more aware of their non-verbal communication and utilize both forms of communication to ensure that their interactions with patients are positive, even when difficult discussions are had. Humans are constantly interacting with all aspects of their environment, and Parse’s theory identifies the importance of being aware of this and using this to promote overall health in the form of quality of life.
Reference
Donohue-Porter, P., Forbes, M. O., White, J. H., & Baumann, S. L. (2017). Transforming nursing education and the formation of students: Using the human becoming paradigm. Nursing Science Quarterly, 30(2), 134–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318417693287
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