NURSING CARE PLANNING AS A KEY POSITION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NURSES AS A SOCIAL GROUP.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1983
Number of pages: 391
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Historical research was carried out on nursing in America from 1930 to 1965. The theoretical framework was developed by Karl Mannheim, who postulated that social groups develop in three stages: from chance discovery to inventing to planned thinking. Progress was demonstrated by mastery of key positions. Nursing care planning, defined as the decision-making process by which nurses make determinations about patient care, was a key position relative to nurses as a social group.

Distinctions were made between "the nursing care plan", an ex post facto product of a reactive process of planning, and "nursing care planning", a proactive prescription for future actions. Planning variables examined included assessment, diagnosis, intervention and evaluation, as well as the knowledge base, purposes and scope of planning. Among other variables examined were the status of hospitals, management theories, organizational structure, education, studies, research and characteristics of nurses.

Mannheim proposed that group action followed group thought. Group thought was examined and analyzed in the writings of nurses in American journals and textbooks.

The terms nursing care plan and nursing care planning were frequently used interchangeably. The study showed that the nursing care plan was used in the thirties, primarily as a teaching device, in which students described care given, with rational and medical care. Nursing care planning was utilized in the forties and fifties under team nursing to schedule tasks and assign auxiliary personnel. Educators assigned nursing care studies which incorporated a nursing care plan and confused the issue. In the early sixties, nurses realized that planning was hampered by lack of an adequate knowledge base. Nurses failed to develop classification systems of nursing diagnoses, and manifested insufficient clarity regarding purposes and scope of planning. Additional impeding factors included hospital bureaucracies, failure to endorse baccalaureate education for professional practice, and the characteristically dedicated, subservient and nonassertive behavior of nurses.

The study demonstrated that nurses made great progress in a short time, and advanced partially into the stage of inventing. Recommendations included research on other key positions, legislation regarding professional licensure, and research to expand the knowledge base for practice.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-03, Section: B, page: 0828.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1983.

School code: 0227.