Virginia Henderson’s Concepts of Nursing and its...

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the key points of Virginia Henderson’s theory â€Å"Concepts of Nursing† (CON) and its application in practice using specific examples. Henderson’s CON is a grand theory written in 1978. (Waller-Wise, 2013) The CON theory provides a definition of nursing care, responsibilities and a focus on specific areas where nursing care is required. (Waller-Wise, 2013) As Henderson (1978) writes, â€Å"Nursing is primarily helping people (sick or well) in the performance of those activities contributing to health, or its recovery (or peaceful death) that they would perform unaided if they had the necessary strength, will, or knowledge.† (p.26) It is the role of the nurse to help aid the patient back to independence as†¦show more content†¦This would include ADLs such as breathing, eating or drinking, elimination of body waste, movement, sleeping, dressing and undressing as well as cleanliness and grooming. (Tourville , 2003) Although Henderson’s CON theory was originally intended for living patients, the concepts of this theory have extended beyond to include situations like organ donation. (Nicely DeLario, 2011) To examine the usage of Henderson’s CON, this paper will use the example of organ donation from brain dead patients. Breathing, eating and drinking In their application of Henderson’s CON to organ donation after brain death, Nicely and DeLario (2011) emphasize the importance of breathing as means of oxygen delivery to maintain organ viability. As brain dead patients lose their ability to breathe or the ability to transfer oxygen, the more likely the organs are to be unusable. (Nicely DeLario, 2011) Even though the nurse may not be able to aid the patient back to health, the nurse can enforce the wishes and decisions of the patient made while still of sound mind. (Nicely DeLario, 2011) These important nursing concepts can apply to hydration and nutrition necessary keep organs in tact for donation. (Nicely DeLario, 2011) Elimination of body waste and maintenance of normal body temperature In CON, Henderson (1978) lists the elimination of body waste and the maintenance of bodyShow MoreRelatedThe Core Concept Of Nursing1745 Words   |  7 Pagescluster of concept or ideas that propose a view concerning a phenomenon to guide nursing practice (Chitty, 2005). The four concepts basic to nursing that are incorporated in this paper are nursing, person, health, and environment (Cherry Jacob, 2005). The goal of this paper is to describe the core concept of nursing shared amongst Dorothea Orem and Virginia Henderson’s theories. The comparison and analysis of concept definitions between these two theories will also examined. 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