Theoretical Base for Practice

Cassaundra Braden

In my practice it is important to me to have a strong theory base. This means being able
to incorporate the theories learned into your practice as they relate to your specific patient
population. The level of nursing that exists today is due to the hard work that previous nursing
theorist did to outline how we care for the type of patients we see daily. The theory content I
learned in my associated degree nursing formed a foundation for my work as a nurse. I use this
on a daily basis caring for my patients now in progressive and intensive care. The BSN program
increased my knowledge of theory and in turn provided me with a greater ability to refer to this
knowledge in my practice.
My project on Florence Nightingale was done towards the beginning of my BSN program
and required me to comb through the research on Nightingale and her contributions to health
care in her time. With a focus on sanitation in a war era where there was no connection between
germs and infection, Florence lead the way toward the infection prevention practices that we
have advanced to in todays practice. Learning about this one theorist caused me to think on my
own practice and what advances I could make. Because of my research on Florence Nightingale
in the BSN program I continued to focus on infection prevention in my own practice.
Connecting her theories to my every day professional activities is a skill that I would not have
learned without this BSN program.