The Careful Nursing philosophy and professional practice model.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Philosophy and Professional Practice Models
• Nursing History and Heritage
• Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing

Background:

• Current nursing models lack relevance, leading to practice issues.
• Nurses report powerlessness and insensitivity in practice.
• There is a need for inspiring professional practice models grounded in nursing history.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the Careful Nursing philosophy and professional practice model.
• To explore its origins in 19th-century Irish nursing practice.
• To propose its relevance for contemporary nursing.

Main Methods:

• Discursive approach.
• Content analysis of historical documents detailing 19th-century Irish nursing.
• Identification of emergent philosophical assumptions, concepts, and dimensions of professional practice.

Main Results:

• A philosophy emphasizing human dignity, transcendent reality, and health as flourishing.
• A professional practice model with four concepts: therapeutic milieu, competence, practice management, and professional authority.
• Eighteen dimensions underpinning the model were identified.

Conclusions:

• Careful Nursing provides meaningful direction and engagement for nurses.
• It can reduce incompetent/insensitive practice and sustain exemplary practice.
• It offers a basis for theory development, closing the practice-science relevance gap.