Theory and practice and the preparation of teachers of nursing

Questions of the relationship between theory and practice frequently occur both within educational and nursing literature and they are the questions that are going to be explored in this paper. Like the double helix, this paper is going to intertwine and interlink nursing and education, since they possess so many similarities and the overall thesis of the paper is that the relationship between theory and practice presents problems because the nature of the problem has been inadequately formulated. The paper falls into four main parts: 1. Four types of relationship between theory and practice. 2. Nursing and education as fields of practice and the nature of fields of practice--implications of this for knowledge, skills, attitudes and values--skills/practical knowledge/knowledge how. 3. Nature of the fields of study and the implications of this for knowledge. 4. Theory and practice--eight possible relationships. The conclusion offers a tentative reformulation of theory and practice in terms of probability and relates this to the preparation of nurses and teachers.