[Gender variables in nursing theories. A text analysis of 5 theories]

During individual care planning in the education of nurses, the students learns to plan, carry out and assess care on the basis of nursing theory. Neutral terms such as patient, client, individual and person commonly occur in planning. The level of personalization can not, however, be considered satisfactory if no attention is paid to gender related variables and if differences in the reaction of men and women to problems and illnesses are not underlined. The aim of the study was to investigate if and how gender related aspects appear in nursing theories. The book "Nursing theories--the base for professional nursing practice" was used as the primary source for the choice of theorists. From the initial selection (n = 12) the five most quoted theorists according to Nursing citation index 1988-1989 (Orem, Rogers, Roy, Nightingale och Peplau), were studied. The result shows that little attention is paid to the gender perspective of patients. Consequently needs of differentiation between women and men are imperfectly observed in individual care planning.