The Importance Of Nursing Theory

Whether an individual is a nurse, physician, or has a career in a different healthcare profession they will come across an opportunity to improve the health of other individuals. Over the years, nurses have taken the opportunity to create theories that help guide the practice of nursing (Petiprin, 2016). There are various nursing theory, but the one that is most relevant to Kangaroo Mother Care is Florence Nightingale’s theory, known as Nightingale’s Environment Theory. This paper will help identify the nursing theory, discuss supportive evidence- based practice regarding the theory, identify the predictions made about the theory, and explain how the nursing theory is used to support the change project.

Identifying the Nursing Theory

Nightingale’s

The nursing role for this theory, is to alter the environment in a way that benefits the patient’s health by creating an atmosphere where the human body heals itself (Petiprin, 2016). Kangaroo Mother Care is when the infant is held skin- to- skin in an upright prone position against the mother or father’s chest (Cleveland et al., 2016). KMC has shown improvements in the infant’s temperature, heart rate, respirations, and oxygen saturations, and this is all due to the change of environment (Bera et al., 2014). Usually the infant is kept in an open crib, where the infant lacks in human contact, and is limited when it comes to positioning. Kangaroo Mother Care helps alter this type of environment by having the infant snuggle with mom in an upright prone position which helps stabilize the infant’s respirations and heart rate (Cleveland et al., 2016). The change in environment helps improve the infant’s temperature because the infant goes from sleeping in a crib to snuggling with the mother. Studies have shown that snuggling with the mother increases breast milk, and helps regulate temperature which helps the baby conserve s those calories used, and redirects them towards the growth and weight gain (Cleveland et al., 2016). KMC overall leads to an earlier discharge, which means the infant will be able to go home, and ultimately this is the biggest environment change (Cleveland et al., 2016). These changes