Summary

"[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.

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