Using a conceptual model for practice in a nursing wellness centre for seniors

The use of a conceptual model to guide practice is critical to the maturation of the profession. Distinguishing between nursing and other health care professions rests, in part, on nursing's ability to articulate what it offers to clients. The nursing paradigm, comprising the essential components of the individual (client), health, environment, and nursing, provides general rules of thumb for the profession (Fawcett, 1984). Selecting a nursing model for a practice setting contributes to theory development: clinical questions generated from the model can be formulated as testable hypotheses. The Wellness Centre offers a unique opportunity for use of a conceptual model in a nurse-managed practice setting serving seniors. If conceptual models are to be useful, they need to be tested in the settings where nurses practise and for the roles that comprise nursing. Use of the crisis model, in this setting provides reality testing of the model which has evolved to a higher level of internal consistency and external validity as a direct result of practice.