Information about nurse theorists can be found in books (both print and electronic), articles, and other places. Our OneSearch tool is a good place to start since it will find books and articles in a single search.
For this project, students often need some background information on the theorist and the theory. For this kind of information, a good place to start is in one of our reference databases, which contain short encyclopedia entries from a variety of sources. While these are not peer-reviewed sources, they are good for a general overview of the topic.
Full-text documents on clinical topics, including diseases, skills and procedures, drug information, and patient information
Books are another good option for background information since they give a broad overview of many topics, including nursing theorists. See if your textbook for your course mentions nursing theorists. If not, here are some databases that contain ebooks on nursing:
Full-text nursing textbooks and ebooks. Only one user allowed at a time for each title
collection of full-text academic e-books on a wide variety of subjects
Here are some recommendations for specific ebooks that contain information about nursing theorists and are available online through the library databases. Please note that all of these books are older than the "five-year limit" that generally applies to nursing research; however, that's expected for this project since most of these theories were developed more than five years ago. Check to see if your professor has specific guidelines for this project that address the age of sources.
Understanding the Work of Nurse Theorists by
Understanding the Work of Nurse Theorists: A Creative Beginning, Second Edition presents the difficult concepts of nursing theory through the use of art, allowing students become more engaged and active learners. Designed for BSN-level courses, this text presents definitions and basic concepts along with a brief overview of a selection of common nursing theories.The Second Edition has been updated to include new chapters on the theories of Patricia Benner, Imogene King, and Rosemarie Parse as well as a chapter on the process of theory development by Jean Watson.
Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice by
Noted theorists and scholars explore the historical and contemporary theories that are the foundation of nursing today. The 3rd Edition of this highly praised book meets the needs of today's students with a new focus on the models that define the best outcomes and provide the evidence that supports nursing practice. For each theory, you'll find an introduction to the theorist, a description of the theory's role as a model for nursing practice, and an examination of its application in clinical practice. Readers will understand how the theory has been used in the past and evaluate it as a model for clinical practice.
Theoretical Basis for Nursing by
Designed for one of the core courses taught in all graduate nursing programs, this text is the most contemporary, concise, and readable nursing theory textbook on the market. It presents historical perspectives on the development of nursing theory, assessments of concept and theory development and theory evaluation, middle-range theories, and shared theories from other disciplines in the sociologic, behavioral, and biomedical sciences, focusing on the application of theory. Learning features found throughout the text include case studies and end-of-chapter summaries that help to reinforce essential concepts.
Pioneering Theories in Nursing by
Pioneering Theories in Nursing traces the origins of nursing theories through their founders. Unlike other nursing theory texts, this book provides the personal story on some of the greatest nursing leaders, clinicians and theorists to date so th...
Theories Guiding Nursing Research and Practice by
"[This book] has its origins in courses taught by the editors and their collaborators for doctoral students. It therefore addresses the need to focus on how theories can be applied in the real world of clinical practice and the research based on it. Introductory and concluding sections make the case for the importance of theoretical frameworks when developing practice and research settings. Eighteen chapters cover individual theoretical approaches. While some, such as the theory of human caring and transformational leadership theory, will be familiar to many readers in the UK, others cover new territory... SCORE: 4/5 stars." --John Adams , honorary research associate, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery , Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Nursing Standard This is the first book to clearly and fully demonstrate the process of using theory to guide nursing research and professional practice. It describes a step-by-step format for evaluating nursing theoryís applicability to research, a format that links theory (both middle-range and grand theory) to research on a wide range of clinical populations and care delivery systems. The book describes how theory analysis models are used to examine various nursing phenomena as they relate to nursing research and professional practice, and provides key examples of how this is accomplished. The book takes the reader through the process of using a theory to guide research from inception of a research question to evaluation of future research. International experts in theory-related nursing research describe twelve theories that have previously been applied to research and practice and six theories that can be applied to future research and practice. Using a consistent analytic framework, each chapter applies a specific theory (from either nursing, psychology, sociology, or management) to a particular clinical population or care delivery issue. These encompass clinical, administrative, and educational nursing settings. The consistent format facilitates ease of comparison across different theories. Generous use of figures and tables further demonstrates the complex relationships between and among concepts embedded in the theories. Key Features: Demonstrates a systematic format for evaluating middle-range and grand nursing theoryís applicability to research Links theory to clinical practice at patient population and care delivery levels Provides a useful template for students of nursing disciplinary knowledge development Presents the scholarship of international researchers of theory-related nursing Includes theories from nursing, psychology, sociology, and management
If you're having trouble finding what you need in OneSearch, you can try a single database. Many of the nursing databases linked below will work for this project, but here's a strategy for easily finding information about a specific theorist in CINAHL:
Full-text scholarly journals in the field of nursing. Allows only one user at a time.
