Nursing & Health Sciences

Understanding nursing theory will help you choose your topic, content and tool for your capstone.

• Theory definitions will help you choose the type of theory that best serves your project goals.

For example, Betty Neuman's Systems Theory is a grand nursing theory.

QUESTION: Would it likely be used for empirical research, aka scholarly research? If not, what kind of research would this theory lend itself to?

• Grand Nursing Theory: This theory is very broad in scope and is the most theoretical and perspective-laden. They are not used for empirical research.

• Mid Range Nursing Theory: Narrower in scope than grand theories, are less abstract and therefore more tangible and verifiable through testing. Lend well to empirical research.

• Nursing Practice Theory: This theory is used to develop nursing interventions and predict outcomes in the context of clinical practice. They are most likely to inform the development of nursing models and are not suitable for empirical research.

• Nursing Conceptual Models: Different than Nursing Theories. Theory describes phenomenon at an abstract level and Models explore the thinking behind the theory and how it can be applied to practice.

• Brainstorm synonyms and alternate terms for the theory or theorist. For example: Myra Levine's conservation theory is also known as Levine's conservation model and Levine's conservation principles.

• Conduct a broad keyword search for "Nursing Theory" or "Theoretical Nursing Models"   

• Do an author search for articles written by a specific theorist (Eg. Benner).

• Try a focused subject search on the specific theory you need; CINAHL has several subject headings for different theoretical models, including the Orem Self-Care Model, Roy Adaptation Model, Watson's Theory of Caring, etc. 

• Combine a nursing theory topic with another topic.   "Orem Self-Care Model" and "cancer patients"