The main role of nursing education is to enhance quality care and ensure competence in practice. This involves classroom theory as well as clinical placements for application of the same. Theory practice gap (TPG) denotes the challenges met in practice due to lack of smooth integration of theoretical content. TPG is a theme in nursing that has the potential to impede advances in practice as well as in patient safety.
TPG has prevented nursing from fully implementing its knowledge base in practice due to several factors. Nursing theorists suggest models that try to capture situations in practice, which is counter intuitive since scenarios continue to evolve and most occurrences are novel (Salifu et al., 2019). Furthermore, most of the theories fail to be effective due to the existence of a gap between theorists and practitioners. Theories might suggest a relevant concept that might end up lacking implementation since the students supposed to utilize it may fail to fully grasp it. Similarly, the clinical setting plays a key role in the theory-practice integration. There lacks a support structure for students and newly qualified nurses to help in the realization of ideals and values taught in nursing education (Salifu et al., 2019). Experiences in TPG may be reduced by establishing a community of facilitators to guide students using clear learning outcomes for theory-practice integration.
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A key role of developing nursing theories is to keep up with the rate of change in healthcare services. The traditional nursing roles are changing and nurses currently assume roles that were previously taken by doctors, while simultaneously leaving some roles to healthcare assistants ( Colley, 2003 ). Nursing theory developments can help other healthcare stakeholders, including patients, appreciate the role and contribution of nurses, by providing nurses with a sense of identity, which also helps the nurses fully comprehend their role in health care. A distinct body of theory will, therefore, result in better patient care and improved communication between nurses ( Colley, 2003) . Additionally, it will also explain what nurses do by providing a unit to measure the main advocate of nursing, caring.
References
Colley, S. (2003). Nursing theory: its importance to practice. Nursing Standard , 17 (46), 33-38.
Salifu, D. A., Gross, J., Salifu, M. A., & Ninnoni, J. P. (2019). Experiences and perceptions of the theory ‐ practice gap in nursing in a resource ‐ constrained setting: A qualitative description study. Nursing open, 6(1), 72-83.
