NSG 502 week 4 middle-range theory and grand theory

Five Stages of Nursing Theory and Philosophy

Nursing has made phenomenal achievement in the last century that has led to the recognition of nursing as an academic discipline and a profession. According to Fawcett (1980), a move towards theory-based practice has made nursing meaningful (p. 10). When talking about nursing theory development, it is important to identify the stages that nursing theory development has gone through to define and guide nursing practice.

It is widely believed that the use of theory offers structure and organization to nursing knowledge. George (2002) defined theory as "a set of concepts, definitions, relationships, and assumptions or propositions derived from nursing models or from other disciplines and...