Practice Problem
The delivery room is one of the happiest places within the practice of nursing but can also be a place of extreme agony, sadness, and disappointment. This mainly happens when there is a miscarriage or a stillbirth . The specific populations most affected by this problem are young, married, and heterosexual couples who are eager to start a family. For years, they prepare for this special moment. Within the month of the actual delivery, they are preoccupied with thoughts of their oncoming bundle of joy that they prepare for ardently and look forward to meeting. When the father and expectant mother come face to face with death on their anticipated happy day, they need a lot of care and attention from the nursing officer as this may have permanent psychological damage on the two (Black et al, 2015).
The Theory
Midrange theories are more specific in nature and act as a bridge between grand theories and actual practice (Marlaine & Marily, 2015). The specific nursing theory that is most suited for the scenario is the Kristen Swanson's Theory of Caring. Swanson designed this theory specifically to enable nursing care for fathers and mothers who have just lost a newly born child, through either a miscarriage or a stillbirth . This theory is based on the understanding that under the care approach to nursing, the nursing officer has a responsibility to the primary patient and the patients loved ones. The attending nurse loses the expected patient and gains two new patients who need urgent attention. This theory enables the nurse to quickly transition to the new scenario and patients who now need her care. It carefully outlines what should be done to the patients and the process of getting the patients started on the process of getting out of the unexpected crisis in which they suddenly find themselves.
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Application of the Theory
The Kristen Swanson's Theory of Caring incorporates five main processes. Knowing is the first process, which entails the nurse seeking to understand as much detail as possible about the situation. Being is t he second and entails the nurse being present for the couple, emotionally over and above physical presence. Another process is doing, which is the process of playing the roles that the patients would have been undertaking for themselves, now that they are not in a position to accomplish. Enabling is the fourth process and is about helping the couple develop the capacity to deal with this unexpected eventuality. Finally, there is sustaining faith or maintaining belief within the couple that they will eventually get over the crisis. The application of this theory may not be about solving the problem that the couple finds itself in but rather assisting them at the point where they are most afflicted and vulnerable and also getting them on the path to recovery (Black et al, 2015).
Past Application and Evaluation
The study by Black, Wright, and Limbo (2015) is inter alia the result of studying decades of providing care and attention for parents who have lost their children before term and at birth. According to the research done within the book, the Kristen Swanson's Theory of Caring has been used in nursing practice for decades with great positive outcomes. It is common for such a parent to wonder why this happened to them and also imagine that the crisis will never end. However, by using this approach, nursing officers have been able to effectively mitigate and extenuate on the pain, disillusionment, and crisis that the parents face and walk them into the path of recovery. The theory has also been extended to situations such as when a parent is having a terminally ill infant or when the infant is about to undergo a procedure where death is a possible outcome (Black et al., 2015). Evaluation of the success of this theory is best undertaken through patient satisfaction assessment since only the outcome rather than the processes can be assessed.
References
Black, B. P., Wright, P. M., & Limbo, R. (2015). Perinatal and pediatric bereavement in nursing and other health professions . New York: Springer Publishing Company
Marlaine C. Smith & Marily E. Parker, (2015). Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice , 4th Edition, Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co. pp. 521-531
