CONCEPTUAL- THEORETICAL MODEL (NURSING THEORY)

Conceptual- theoretical model (nursing theory)



Conceptual- theoretical model (nursing theory)

I would like to begin this paper by quoting The Little Prince's (Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943) “But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...” There could have never been a much more accurate depiction of how I am trying to wrestle with such a difficult assignment to do in all my years as a student than with this Nursing Theory 521 subjectwhose learning's I must now try to decipher and apply into my ten chosen articles. I am no expert and I beg for your indulgence as I try to make sense of this subject's esoteric beauty and profound ambiguities but I would have to admit that in my journey towards more knowledge, I have discovered a more personal meaning of myself and deeper insight of how I see myself grow into the nursing profession a few years from now.

The ten articles that I found all centered on one main theme which is caring that involves the utilization of animals in the care of the patients and in this case, those who were afflicted with dementia. The worddementia comes from the Latin de meaning "apart" and mens from the genitive mentis meaning "mind". Dementia is the progressive deterioration in cognitive function which is the ability to process thought and intelligence (Buttaro, 2010). The single unifying theme in all of my articles such as in the journal “Animal-assisted therapy for dementia: a review of literature” is that animal assisted therapy is widely gaining popularity for its innovativeness and it'seffectivity in reaching out to some of the most challenging patients (Filan and Llewellyn-Jones, 2006). The results on all ten articles were very promising and the patients' responses were truly encouraging. Majority of these dementia patients has been housed in long term residential facilities and many of these patients have had significant improvements with their aggression, anxiety and agitation levels respectively (Filan and Llewellyn-Jones, 2006). In another article entitled “The impact of different dog-related stimuli on engagement of patients with dementia”, the article stated that participants of that study showed that these patients with Dementia have successfully engaged with these animals fostering a more meaningful relationship although there is a clear need for psychological assistance for this population (Marx, Cohen-Mansfield, Dakheel, Srihari and Thein, 2010). All these articles while some may not be as successful as the others, all showed that animal therapy is something that the medical and nursing professions should consider as part of their adjunct therapy as this can be a cost effective method for health promotion and disease prevention ( Cangelosi, Sorrell, 2010). After reading all these articles, I have found myself trying to redefine my meaning of nursing as a profession. Nursing to me is no longer about bedside caring of an acutely ill patient but rather it is an encompassing term that means to care for someone at any given time who exists along the health continuum (Pender, 2011)Nursing should not ...