History Of Nursing Theory

ABIGAIL F. MONGE, RN, MAN

Presenter
• The history of professional nursing began
with Florence Nightingale.
• She envisioned nurses as a body of educated
women at a time when women were neither
educated nor employed in public service.
Following her service of organizing and
caring for the wounded in Scutari, during
the Crimean War, her vision and
establishment of a School of Nursing at St.
Thomas’ Hospital in London marked the
birth of modern nursing.
• Nightingale’s pioneering
activities in nursing
practice and subsequent
writings describing
nursing education
became a guide for
establishing nursing
schools in the United
States at the beginning
of the twentieth century
(Kalisch & Kalisch,
2003; Nightingale,
1859/1969).
• Nursing began with a strong emphasis
on practice, but throughout the
century, nurses worked toward the
development of nursing as a profession
through successive periods recognized
as historical eras (Alligood, 2006a).
Historical Development
• In the early part of nursing’s history, knowledge
was extremely limited and almost entirely task
oriented.
• Role of nurses where questioned; what they do,
for whom where and when were determined.
• The professionalization of nursing has been and is
being brought about through the development
and use of nursing theory.
Historical Eras
• Each era addressed nursing knowledge
in a unique way that contributed to and
is observable in the history of nursing.
Within each era, the pervading
question “What is the nature of the
knowledge that is needed for the
practice of nursing?” seems to have
been addressed at the level of
understanding that prevailed at that
time
• Nightingale’s vision of nursing has
been practiced for more than a century,
and theory development in nursing has
evolved rapidly over the past 5
decades, leading to the recognition of
nursing as an academic discipline with a
substantive body of knowledge .
Mid 1800’s and 1960’s
• Although some nursing leaders aspired
for nursing to be recognized as a
profession and become an academic
discipline, nursing practice continued to
reflect its vocational heritage more
than a professional vision.
• The transition from vocation to profession
included successive eras of history as nurses
searched for a body of substantive
knowledge on which to base nursing
practice. The curriculum era emphasized
course selection and content for nursing
programs and gave way to the research era,
which focused on learning the research
process and meeting the long-range goal of
acquiring substantive knowledge to guide
nursing practice.
Mid 1970’s
1980’s
First Conference in Nursing Theory (1978)
• Brought leading scholars and theorists to
discuss and debate on issues regarding
nursing science and theory development.
Therefore, preparation for practice
in the profession of nursing requires
knowledge of the theoretical works of
the discipline.
Source:
• Martha Raile Alligood, Nursing Theorists and Their
Work, 9th Edition, Elsevier, edition printed in the
Philippines, (2018)

• https://nursekey.com/introduction-to-nursing-
theory-its-history-significance-and-analysis/