Essay on Theory Related to Community Health and Non-Nursing

Theories serve as a reasonable or scientific explanation for intervention and provide people with the required information to take appropriate action and respond to healthcare provision. Examining nursing and non-nursing theories helps the students understand the concepts that ground nursing models (Kumar, 2019). Community health theory often leads the creation of knowledge and governs training, research, and practice. Nursing theories are essential and beneficial to nursing students and clinical researchers, and they can acquire valuable information about best practices in nursing. One of these family health theories is self-care deficit nursing theory (Ali, 2018). This theory applies because the nursing theory is not enough to deliver the outcome to the required optimal success. One of these non-nursing theories is the change theory that stipulates that human beings grow and their needs change (Walsh, 2021). Change is unavoidable, and it happens daily, and nurses need to incorporate this theory to identify changes and how to deal with changes dynamics for their success in their profession.

Self-Care Deficit Nursing and Change Theory Summary

Dorothea Elizabeth Orem developed the self-care deficit nursing theory in 1971, according to Graves (2019). The approach assists the nurses in determining the kind of sick person care they should target in a given scenario and emphasizes the need for clients to sustain autonomy during their self-care practices. The theory entails the success of self-care practices that patients do on their own. The procedures may entail activities to sustain one’s life and life functioning, enhance oneself, or rectify a health problem. The theory has three concepts that include self-care agency, therapeutic self-care demand, and essential conditioning attributes. The self-care agency refers to the acquired ability to practice self-care affected by primary conditions such as age, gender, family system, and health care system. On the other hand, therapeutic self-care demand refers to the totality of all measures required in self-care. Finally, the concept of self-care refers to carrying out self-care to fulfill the self-care requisites.

Kurt Lewin postulated change theory and employs three concepts: driving force, restraining forces, and equilibrium (Kumar, 2019). The driving forces entail the forces that push in a specific direction causing change occurrences. The forces push an individual to shift from equilibrium towards change. On the contrary, restraining forces are against the driving forces, and they inhibit change because they push an individual in the opposite direction. The equilibrium concept is a situation where driving forces is same as the resistance force. It can easily be shifted by variations between the driving and restraining forces. According to change theory, leaders must reject the idea and substitute new information with previous understanding. When the force power can be identified and determined, the forces are known for change. Finally, change may happen when the driving forces are more significant than the forces of restriction.

Application to Family/Community Health or Patient Behavior

Self-care deficit nursing theory is applied in assessing various patients’ conditions by identifying their specific needs. Different treatments such as counseling and training sessions encourage clients to think differently. The patient participates in vocational and group therapy (Drevenhorn, 2018). Based on self-care deficit nursing theory, it will help treat the condition so that the patient is optimistic. Using cognitive-behavioral treatment, they can help them solve problems. The patient is sometimes isolated at the beginning and wants to be alone in the room. To this end, the patient engages in many sessions designed to express their feelings. The procedures help the patient progress from fully compensating to partial compensating, and they can conduct their daily work with minimal assistance. Furthermore, many activities are organized, such as one-to-one sessions or group therapy, group sharing, and physiotherapy.

The theory of change by Lewin’s application is a significant aspect of patient care and experience. According to Lewin, before a change takes shape in culture, those proposing change must undergo various stages, including unfreezing, moving, and refreezing (Amado & Amato, 2018). For example, executive leadership in health care can positively change and contribute to patient satisfaction. The unfreezing stage involves interrogating the status quo and establishing what needs to be changed. At this stage, the leadership team in the organization reviews the satisfaction benchmarks. The second stage in change theory application is where the executive leadership moves around the health facility and observes the interaction between the caregiver and the patient. Next, there is the observation of possible changes that need to get executed, and if a need arises, the whole team may undergo customer service training to make positive changes. The final phase is freezing, where the modifications executed as trial and error are confirmed to be permanent with the implementation of new ways of carrying out business.

The Strengths and Limitations

Self-care deficit nursing theory strength is that it is applicable by beginners and advanced practitioners. Also, it gives a detailed ground for nursing practice. It explains that nursing is greatly needed when individuals cannot meet self-care to sustain health and life and recover from diseases. However, self-care deficit nursing theory has some limitations whereby it is complex using many terminologies that include; self-care agency, self-care demand, and self-care deficit (Tesh, 2019). Also, it displays rigidity while referring to health as a static condition termed a concrete nursing system. On the other hand, the theory of change has some strengths. It helps recognize and understand a prevailing situation, assist in comparing and contrasting different experiences, and explain the best decisions for change (Hubers, 2020). Nevertheless, some limitations get attributed to the change theory, and it is criticized based on its approach of roadmap concept of getting one from one point to another. This approach gives rise to misleading notions on linearity.

Theory Integration in the Nursing Process and the Application

Successful nursing practices get promoted by providing patient care beyond theoretical concepts. According to First-Williams (2019), Orem’s self-care theory offers guidance to ambulatory surgery practitioners. Using this theory, the nurse supports clients by establishing a developmental environment for them, by educating, guiding, and helping them. Care ranges from comprehensive care to patient education care. Therefore, self-care deficiencies that occur after operation and anesthesia get addressed to prevent the patient from the ambulatory environment to satisfy the demands in self-care. The theory of change integration is essential to recognize that it is never simple to change, and some people will be enthusiastic and resistant. Identify individuals who are willing to change and engage them in creating momentums. Collect and evaluate facts to properly communicate the need for change. Provide staff with truthful information and enable them to ask questions, speak out their concerns, and explain the reasons for change, how people are affected, and how the organization benefits.

References

Ali, B. H. I. (2018). Application of Orem self-care deficit theory on the psychiatric patient. Annals of Nursing and Practice, 5(1), 1-3.

Amado, G., & Amato, R. (2018). Organizational change theories and practices: A critical review. The transitional approach to change, 29-85.

Drevenhorn, E. (2018). A proposed middle-range theory of nursing in hypertension care. International journal of hypertension, 2018.

First-Williams, J. C. (2019). Educating Staff Nurses for Successful Patient Discharge (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

Graves, Z. L. (2019). The Social Worker, Stress, and Burnout: Development of a Self-Care Training Protocol (Doctoral dissertation, Ashford University).

Hubers, M. D. (2020). Paving the way for sustainable educational change: Reconceptualizing what it means to make educational changes that last. Teaching and teacher education, 93, 103083.

Kumar, D., Lohani, P., Kumar, A., Ahmad, S., & Kumar, P. (2019). Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN): Are Cold Chain Handlers Supporting this m Health? An Application of Kurt Lewin Theory of Change Management. International Journal of Health Systems and Implementation Research, 3(1), 33-40.

Kumar, R. (2019). Nursing Research & Statistics. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers.

Tesh, A. (2019). Nursing Theory: The Basis for Professional Nursing. Professional Nursing E-Book: Concepts & Challenges, 198.

Walsh, R. R. (2021). Think Like a Nurse: A Qualitative Case Study in Using Nursing’s Past to Enhance the Quality of Nursing’s Future (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University).