Definition
Nursing is the study and application of human health and illness processes. The practice of nursing entails facilitating, supporting, and assisting individuals, families, communities, and/or societies to (a) prevent illness; (b) enhance, maintain, and recover health; and (c) reduce, modify, and ameliorate the effects of disease. Nursing’s science and practice are directed toward explicit health outcomes relevant to the quality of life of individuals, families, and communities within the immediate and larger physical and social environmental contexts (adapted from Thorne et al., 1998).
Description
“The central paradox of nursing is that it is a professional practice discipline at once so mundane that some of its technical aspects can be performed by almost anyone yet so cognitively sophisticated and mysterious that its excellent application requires advanced education, extensive reflective clinical practice, and an ongoing commitment to inquiry” (Thorne, 2011, p. 86)....
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beckstrand, J. (1978). The notion of a practice theory and the relationship of scientific and ethical knowledge to practice. Research in Nursing & Health, 1(3), 131–136.
Casteldine, G. (2007). Florence Nightingale, a force to be reckoned with: The BNJ over 100 years ago. British Journal of Nursing, 16(9), 525.
Chinn, P. L., & Kramer, M. K. (2011). Theory and nursing: Integrated knowledge development (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby/Elsevier.
Ferrans, C. E. (2005). Definitions and conceptual models of quality of life. In J. Lipscomb, C. C. Gotay, & C. Synder (Eds.), Outcomes assessment in cancer: Measures, methods and applications (pp. 14–30). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Ferrans, C. E., & Powers, M. J. (1985). Quality of life index: Development and psychometric properties. Advances in Nursing Science, 8(1), 15–24.
Flaming, D. (2004). Nursing theories as nursing ontologies. Nursing Philosophy, 5(3), 224–229.
Frank-Stromborg, M., & Olsen, J. (2004). Instruments for clinical health care research (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Henderson, V. (1966). The nature of nursing. New York: Macmillan.
Johnson, J. L. (1991). Nursing science: basic, applied, or practical? Implications for the art of nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 14(1), 7–16.
Kikuchi, J. F. (1992). Nursing questions that science cannot answer. In J. L. Kikuchi & H. Simmons (Eds.), Philosophic inquiry in nursing (pp. 26–37). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
King, C. R., & Hinds, P. S. (2011). Quality of life: From nursing and patient perspectives (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Libster, M. M. (2008). Elements of care: Nursing environmental theory in historical context. Holisic Nursing Practice, 22(3), 160–170.
Meleis, A. I. (2007). Theoretical nursing: Development and progress (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Nelson, S. (2001). From salvation to civics: Service to the sick in nursing discourse. Social Science & Medicine, 53(9), 1217–1225.
Thorne, S. (2011). Theoretical issues in nursing. In J. C. Ross-Kerr & M. J. Wood (Eds.), Canadian nursing: Issues and perspectives (5th ed., pp. 85–104). Toronto, ON: Elsevier.
Thorne, S., Canam, C., Dahinten, S., Hall, W., Henderson, A., & Kirkham, S. (1998). Nursing’s metaparadigm concepts: Disimpacting the debates. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27, 1257–1268.
Watson, J. (1979). Nursing: The philosophy and science of caring. Boston: Little, Brown.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Thorne, S., Sawatzky, R. (2014). Nursing and Quality of Life. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1977
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1977
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0752-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0753-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law