Florence Nightingale’s Middle Range Theory Response

Middle-range theory influences the practice of nursing as such theories aid in expanding theory-based research and developing new nursing practice strategies. Florence Nightingale’s leadership role in varying aspects of nursing practice is attributed to her legacy of caring. Her legacy of caring plays a quintessential role in nursing and the patient-environment relationship (Parker & Smith, 2010, p.15). Nightingale created a professional role for nurses and established the framework for modern-day nursing practice. Nightingale’s theoretical framework is limited in scope and level of abstraction and also contains a limited number of variables characteristic of a middle-range theory (Parker & Smith, 2010, p.17). This theory is sufficient and is quite useful when applied to a variety of different clinical concerns or issues as it helps to predict clinical outcomes and impact the nursing practice. Nightingale’s theoretical framework helped to orient nurses about the significance of the patients’ environment including the condition of bandages, the layout of sick rooms, as well as hygienic and public health issues (Parker & Smith, 2010, p.17).

Nightingale rejected the stance that disease might possibly be caused by infectious agents and instead decided to complicate the notion as she believed the disease state of humans was directly correlated to their environmental conditions (Nightingale, 1969, p.32). Nightingale’s practical interventions based upon her middle-range theory is applied by nurse leaders and nurse managers and is still used as a basis in nursing practice today. In an effort to effectively deal with the presence of a diseased state in humans and their environmental conditions, health care organizations have implements policies and protocols which require nurses to wash their hands prior to assessing a patient.

References

Nightingale, Florence. (1969/1860). Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not. New York, NY: Dover Publications.

Parker, M. E., & Smith, M.C. (2010). Nursing theories and nursing practice (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company.