title: Theoretical perspectives of nursing: a review of the literature.
abstract: The discipline of nursing has slowly evolved from the traditional role of women having been influenced by a variety of factors such as apprenticeship, humanitarian aims, religious ideals, medicine, increasing technology, politics, war, feminism and more recently research. This variety of influences is reflected in the many and varied definitions and descriptions of nursing currently espoused in the literature. A review of the most widely cited definitions and descriptions of nursing from Nightingale to the present day resulted in the identification of eight theoretical perspectives of nursing. Each of these are discussed. The author concludes that nursing has yet to arrive at a consensus regarding the nature, components and process of nursing which is crucial for professional credibility and the viability of professional nursing as it enters the next millennium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acute and Critical Care Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, England.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hilton
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009736:Nursing Process; D009742:Nursing Theory; D009626:Terminology as Topic