NURSING THEORY-BASED PRACTICE IN THE HOME AND COMMUNITY - THE CRUX OF PROFESSIONAL NURSING-EDUCATION

Nursing has been viewed as a service for people wherever they may be-a service, grounded in scientific knowledge, that transcends setting. Yet nursing education has been overwhelmed by hospital institutions for the past 50 years, its attention diverted to medical entities and institutional trends, with fragmentation and depersonalization of general health care as well as nursing care as the result. Nursing theory-based practice is not feasible in institutions where medical orders overshadow all other disciplines. Community-based experiences in which nursing students learn about people and their health in the context of home and community offer the best promise for students to learn the complex human dynamics of real life and develop the holistic perspective required for independent nursing practice. The time has passed for nursing education to focus on the fraction of the population in hospitals while slighting knowledge about health as it is lived every day. Priority content for all nursing students should be a portable nursing theorybase that can be taken anywhere, focusing on health promotion, healthy environments, and quality of life.