Environment, ecosystems, and ecological behavior: a dialogue toward developing nursing ecological theory.
Current epistemological foundations of nursing theory incorporate minimal ecology theory. The purpose of this article is to present a nursing ecological theory with a goal to broaden current nursing perspectives by incorporating expanded concepts of global ecosystems, communities, and interrelationships derived from ecological sciences. A theory derivation process is utilized, and a nursing ecological model is proposed. Nurses face a challenge to translate global environment concern and ecological beliefs into professional activities. Elucidating a nursing ecological theory may guide our profession toward new directions in holistic care and will be good for the care of our patients, profession, and the Earth.
Loretto Heights Department of Nursing, RHSHP, Regis University, Denver, CO 80221, USA. glauste@regis.edu
Gary
G
Laustsen
D003210:Concept Formation; D004463:Ecology / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004782:Environmental Health / Q000458:organization & administration; D014943:Global Health; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D016294:Models, Nursing; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015399:Nursing Research; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D012107:Research Design; D013598:Systems Theory