The Historical Evolution of Theories and Conceptual Models for Nursing

The development of nursing models can be traced to the inception of nursing as a profession. Florence Nightingale laid the foundation for current nursing practice and differentiated nursing from medicine. The late 19th and early 20th centuries contributed a number of important nurse theorists, better known for other contributions to the neophyte profession. Clara Weeks-Shaw, Isabel Hampton Robb, Bertha Harmer, Lavinia Dock and Isabel Stewart, and Hester Frederick and Ethel Northam wrote nursing texts as well as described nursing models. Theorists of the post-World War II period defined nursing through theories of interpersonal relationships. They included Hildegard Peplau, Faye Abdellah, and Bertha Harmer and Virginia Henderson. In 1961, Ida Jean Orlando proposed that nurses use all senses in the nursing process. Ernestine Wiedenbach conceptualized nursing as having four components: philosophy, purpose, practice, and art. Myra Estrin Levine used a deductive approach to develop her theory. Joyce Travelbee's was an interactional model. Lydia E. Hall developed a model of three overlapping circles. In 1968, Dorothy Johnson presented a conceptual model for practice. Martha Rogers, Betty Neuman, and Dorothea Orem have for over a decade continued to shape, change, and rethink their work, each moving to a current conceptual model now in use. (YLB)