Conceptual models used in clinical practice

Nurses' difficulties in articulation of conceptual models may be due to several factors--not the least of which are the existence of discrete theories for each area of nursing specialization, dissociation in curricula of theory from practice, a holistic conceptual framework that may be inadequately defined at the process level, and an impulse toward idealism on the part of the nurses themselves. These observations challenge both the theorists and the practitioners of modern nursing to describe more clearly the definition of quality for the science and art of nursing. Nurses are beginning to grasp the idea of holism. It is not the summation of parts to make a whole. Holism is the identification of life patterns, which are reflective of the whole. Nurses in practice and research are starting to create methods of inquiry that portray the wholeness of the autonomous person in continual, dynamic change and exchange with a changing universe. These initial explorations are leading to the evolution of the concepts of person, environment, and health into a distinctive theoretical base for nursing practice. In practice, research, and education, nurses must be committed to excellent, current descriptions of these human life patterns.