| Learning Objective #1: develop an understanding of the nurses' views of nursing in mainland China | |||
| Learning Objective #2: appreciate the unique definition of nursing developed from the study. |
As China entered into the era of reform in the 1980s, numerous nursing reforms have been undertaken to strengthen nursing as a profession. Educational reform was initiated with an aim to move nursing curriculum away from the medical model to humanistic behavioral care model. Against this background, a national study to capture how nurses articulate nursing in their everyday practice was launched. The objectives of the study were to (1) depict the picture of how nurses conceptualize nursing as it is practiced in China, and (2) arrive at a definition of nursing based on the common understanding of nurses at large.
Written accounts of one's view of nursing from 254 practising nurses in different parts of China were collected. VanKaam's phenomenological method of controlled explication was used to analyze these accounts. The final list of 117 phrases was checked by 2 research team members to ensure that indeed it had contained a complete representation of all respondents' views on nursing. The phrases were categorized by employing Aristotle's notion of four causes in concept analysis. They are the meaning of the word "nursing" (material cause), the essence of nursing (formal cause), the goal of nursing (final cause), and nursing action (efficient cause). To investigate how far nurses agree with these 117 descriptions, a structured questionnaire was formulated for eliciting responses of 1,782 nurses from 8 Chinese cities.
The findings reveal that Chinese nurses have moved from a pre-professional to a professional understanding of the meaning of nursing. Both practice and theory are equally weighed. There is a consensus agreement among the Chinese nurses that the essence of nursing comprises knowledge, practice skills, attitude and value, with slightly higher regard on practical skills and values. They also have high consensus on the goals of nursing at global, community, and individual levels.
Back to Accepted Posters
Back to 37th Biennial Convention - Clinical Sessions
Sigma Theta Tau International