PROPOSALS OF NIGHTINGALE AND HENDERSON: TOWARD CONSTRAINTS FOR NURSING EDUCATION.
Contributors: Temple University.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 94
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The basic problem of this study was to describe Florence Nightingale's proposals for nursing in relation to Germ Theory and Virginia Henderson's proposals for nursing in relation to Antibiotics. The principal aim of this study was to derive constraints for nursing education. It was postulated that Nightingale's and Henderson's proposals were precursors to what is now called Nursing Diagnosis.

Research proceeded in four interrelated stages: (1) a description of Germ Theory and Nightingale's response to that hypothesis, (2) a description of antibiotic theory and Henderson's response to that hypothesis, (3) an examination of Nightingale's and Henderson's nursing proposals as potential constraints for nursing practice, and (4) derivation of implications for constraints for nursing education.

The comparison of statements by Nightingale and Henderson relative to the focus of data collection reveals an undeniable consistency. The extent of commonality requires examination for its implicit promise as a source of constraint for nursing practice. The development of constraints on nursing practice has implications for nursing education. It would seem that the focus of data collection is a principal source of constraint for nursing practice and therefore a potential source of constraint for nursing education.

In an effort to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposals of Nightingale and Henderson as potential sources of constraints for nursing practice and therefore for nursing education, a tentative comparison was attempted with a third, current and acceptable source, the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association's classification of nursing diagnoses. The consistency among these three sources provides a basis from which nurse theoreticians and nurse practitioners can begin studied examination of the focus of data collection. This consistency seems to have the potential to provide the basis for the development of constraints for nursing practice and therefore the development of constraints for nursing education.

If and only if nurse theoreticians and nurse practitioners proceed with careful examination of these sources, and if and only if that examination demonstrates the feasibility of the focus of data collection as a source of constraint, then it is reasonable to propose that nursing intervention be subjected to comparable critical study for its potential to provide constraints for nursing education.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 2899.

Thesis (ED.D.)--TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, 1986.

School code: 0225.