The future of health care is quite uncertain to the stakeholders. With the rising health care cost, the increase in the global burden of diseases, and widening consumer knowledge, the nurse is faced with administrative dilemma, ensuring quality care, and financing the services. The increase adoption of technological certainly alters the nursing environment.
Lately, a minimal attention has been given to the grand theory, since nurses have been fully accepted as professionals. However, there is still struggle to develop the discipline and expand its knowledge base. With the quest to expand the professional knowledge base, the middle range theories will be in demand in the 21st century. According to Mary Jane Smith and her counterpart Patricia Liehr (2008) in (Matney, Avant, & Staggers, 2015), nursing has been left on the margin of health professions and it faces danger of being ignored or consumed unless special attention is awarded to the discipline and practice (Matney, Avant, & Staggers, 2015). With the advancement of middle range theories, evidence of “growth of knowledge development” is available (Matney, Avant, & Staggers, 2015). On the other hand, specialization is growing within the discipline. Nursing is expanding in scope and more disciplines are emerging within the profession.
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As once believed, the professional nurse is no longer a Jack-Of-All-Trades, rather, a specialized health care personnel. The future of health care will be characterized by “less abstraction, more limited scope, reflect practice, and address specific phenomena or concepts” (Meleis, 2012. p.33). The Meleis description perfectly fits the middle range theories. The author notes that the middle range theories with lead to situation specific theories, which “focus on specific nursing phenomena, reflect clinical practice, and limited to a specific population or a particular field of practice” (Meleis, 2012. p.34). The future of nursing profession will be characterized by further specification and widening of base knowledge.
From my personal reflection. Nursing is growing to be a more specific profession. Additionally, there is a lot of dynamism in the discipline. The changing healthcare environment invariably alters the nursing practice.
References
Meleis, A. (2012). Theoretical nursing development and progress (5th ed.). Philadelphia,: Wolters Kluwer, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Matney, S., Avant, K., Staggers, N., (2015) "Toward an Understanding of Wisdom in Nursing" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 21 No. 2. DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol21No01PPT02
Cronin, P. (2012). Nurse education in practice: Theoretical nursing development and progress. School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2012.02.002
