Nursing theory is one of the subjects in my education that has been the most difficult to grasp. Although I knew of Florence Nightingale and much of my earlier nursing education was based upon Betty Neuman's Systems Model, the significance of this information and of nursing theory in general was hitherto lost on me.
      In these early and formative years of my practice and education, I never really understood the concept of Nightingale or Neuman as "nursing theorists". I did not understand the relationship between nursing theory and nursing practice, or the importance of nursing theory to the profession.
     From the first readings in the text "Nursing Theorists and Their Work" I was at turns enchanted (reading about Nightingale), perplexed and mystified (reading Rogers' "Unitary Human Beings" theories, and sometimes I was proud. I felt proud that these great thinkers who happened to be nurses had laid the framework for nursing to be held up to other scientific professions, and that perhaps someday my ideas or thoughts about nursing could also matter to the profession.
      The authors state that "not only is theory essential for the existence of nursing as an academic discipline, it is also vital to the practice of professional nursing (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 10). The relevance of theory in my eyes is most striking when looking back at some earlier nursing concepts. Taking Florence Nightingale's ideas about nursing, person, health, and environment into consideration shows that concepts from the beginning of nursing as a profession still apply to the health care environment today. In addition, these early nursing models were fundamental in the development of future theories. It seems that in nursing, theories beget theories.
      Although it is interesting to learn about the different theories and the minds behind them, a more difficult task is attempting to apply these theories to everyday practice. Nightingale's concepts of ventilation, warmth, light, diet, cleanliness, and noise (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 75) seem basic, yet these elements are virtually absent in today's modern health care facility. Sister Callista Roy's "Adaptation Model" is an example of a nursing model which is more abstract and difficult for me to understand how it applies to modern day nursing practice.
      Working through the text towards the "middle range" nursing theories is where I believe I understood the theories and ideas more completely. One particular activity I enjoyed and that cemented some of the concepts was the group presentation. The presentation involved us enacting out a scenario where we each "played" a selected theorist. We had fun as a group coming up with a creative scenario and pretending to be nursing theorists. It was made more interesting because some people of the group had a more abstract theorist while some of us had a theory much easier to apply to life and nursing practice (me). I believe that this activity helped to demonstrate how an idea of a theory can be applied to a real situation. Even if I never study nursing theory in depth, I don't think I will ever forget Kolcaba's theory!
      In closing, I would like to add that knowing the beginning theories of nursing and how they have developed and inspired the theories of modern practice are just as important as understanding the beginnings of our country, our family, or our culture. I believe that you have to know where you have been to have a clear idea of where you are going; this idea applies to nursing and most other areas of life.