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.
Laustsen
Gary
G
Loretto Heights Department of Nursing, RHSHP, Regis University, Denver, CO 80221, USA. glauste@regis.edu
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