Discussion: Applying Nursing Theory to Patient Care Scenarios

This discussion post examines the critical role of nursing theory in contemporary healthcare, advocating for the integration of multidisciplinary care to effectively address the diverse needs of patients. The author argues against limiting nursing to a single discipline, emphasizing the necessity of drawing upon various fields, such as communication theory and therapeutics, to provide comprehensive and patient-centered care. The post highlights the complexities of patient needs, illustrated through the example of a patient with obesity and diabetes, where the nurse requires knowledge of physical health, nutritional management, physiotherapy, and mental health care. The author references several studies that support the need for multidisciplinary teamwork and its positive impact on patient outcomes across various care settings, including acute, aged, community, surgical, and palliative care. The author concludes that nursing theories must adapt and converge with other disciplines to ensure safe and effective patient care.

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Discussion post
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DISCUSSION POST
Health care is a rapidly changing professional domain. The technological and scientific
advancements are reforming the health care service delivery every day. As a result, the nurses
are also required to adapt to the changing health care delivery environment and respond to the
ever-changing care needs of the patients as well (Hartgerink et al. 2014). This discussion is
aimed to refute the statement “Nursing should not ‘borrow’ theories from other disciplines.” with
argument highlighting the essential need of multidisciplinary care.
First and foremost, the primary role and responsibility of nursing professional is to
address the individualized and unique care needs of the patients and provide optimized patient
centred care. However, the care needs of the patients are not just limited to the physical care
needs, but encompass emotional, psychosocial and spiritual needs as well. As a result, the nurses
need to acquire and master more than a singular discipline in order to be able to address the care
needs of the patients effectively (Hartgerink et al. 2014).
As primary care nurse, the target population served in this case is huge and encompasses
various age groups and a myriad of adversities (Naylor et al. 2016). As a result, while attending
to a patient with morbid obesity and diabetes, the nurse will require to have theoretical and
practical knowledge of physical health care for obesity associated health complication like
diabetes, cardiac health disorders and renal disorders, along with nutritional and dietary
management for dietary control of the bodyweight, physiotherapy, physical exercise, fitness
regime for fatburning and weight control, and mental health care to address the body image
issues, depression or self loathing issues in the patient. Hence, multidisciplinary care planning
and implementation is the need of hour for any patient care setting including acute care, aged
care, community care, surgical care and even in palliative care. Hence, nursing theories must

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DISCUSSION POST
adapt and converge with communication theory, therapeutics and many other disciplines to
continue to provide safe and effective care (Naylor et al. 2016).

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DISCUSSION POST
References:
Hartgerink, J. M., Cramm, J. M., Bakker, T. J. E. M., Van Eijsden, A. M., Mackenbach, J. P., &
Nieboer, A. P. (2014). The importance of multidisciplinary teamwork and team climate
for relational coordination among teams delivering care to older patients. Journal of
Advanced Nursing, 70(4), 791-799.
Naylor, M. D., Aiken, L. H., Kurtzman, E. T., Olds, D. M., & Hirschman, K. B. (2011). The
importance of transitional care in achieving health reform. Health affairs, 30(4), 746-754.