title: Situation-specific theories: philosophical roots, properties, and approach.
abstract: It is imperative to further develop theoretical bases in nursing, which incorporate diversities and complexities in nursing phenomena, and which consider sociopolitical, cultural, and historic contexts of nursing encounters. Situation-specific theories are proposed in this work as a future direction of such theoretical bases in nursing. Philosophical roots and properties of situation-specific theories are discussed, and an integrative approach to developing this type of theories is suggested. Situation-specific theories could be based on the assumptions of post-empiricism, critical social theory and feminism, and or hermeneutics. Six properties of situation-specific theories are presented: (1) low level of abstraction, (2) reflection of specific nursing phenomena, (3) context, (4) connection to research and/or practice, (5) incorporation of diversities, and (6) limits in generalization. The proposed integrative approach to developing situation-specific theories includes (1) a nursing perspective, (2) a linkage among theory, research, and practice, and (3) a conceptual scheme based on internal and external dialogues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Maintenance, School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA.
authors.forename: E O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Im
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Meleis
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010684:Philosophy