Western Nursing Theories

2487 Words5 Pages

This writer is going to explore two different western nursing theories that were shaped by philosophy, politics, history and society and view the revolutionary application of the theories in the modern world. In the beginning of a journey to a psychiatric nursing career, a student needs to consider nurses of the past, and present, and the theories they developed. Nursing is constantly evolving and the nursing theories evolve in response to society’s evolution.(Barker,2009) Historically politics shaped society, and its view of the mentally ill. In the past, psychiatric nursing relied on the physicians/psychiatrists biomedical theory to mental illness. This writer suggests that today in response to the changing world that nurse theories will revolutionize treatment of the mental health consumer. The World Health Organization lists what world changes have occurred, and how health care needs to change in response to the world.(Barker,2009) WHO lists these changes in relevance to psychiatric nursing and the need for flexible mental healthcare, to address our changing society.(Barker,2009) The population is older and growing this requires a larger number of mental health nurses to respond.(Barker,2009) There are a larger number of mental illnesses identified by the DSM today than in the past.(Barker,2009) This definitely suggests, that a more psychosocial approach is needed in response, rather than the traditional biomedical “cure”. Ethnic and cultural diversity requires nurses to be more creative in applying theory to nursing.(Barker,2009) More links are being made between mental health and the changing society we live in. New technology demands that a psychiatric nurse apply new knowledge in their profession.(...

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