Nursing & Health Sciences: Nursing Theories

During your nursing education, you will be required to research nursing theories and theorists. Nursing theories provide the foundation for current nursing practices and philosophies of nursing. 

The first step in writing about nursing theories is to choose a theory or theorist on which to focus. If you do not already have one in mind, there are several places where you can find information on nursing theories to help you choose.

• Start in your classroom:
  • Lecture notes
  • The textbook
  • Weekly course materials.
• These resources are aligned with the weekly assignments and discussion questions, so looking in the readings for that week is a great place to start. 
• There are several nursing websites that provide information on nursing theories and theorists. On these, you can find lists of nursing theorists, biographical information about the theorist, and an overview of the theory. The links below will help you get started.
• Several books that overview a number of theories and theorists are also provided below.

Once you have selected a theory, you will need to locate articles about it. CINAHL is the recommended database to begin your search, you can access it through the link below. Instructions for how to best set up a search in CINAHL for a theory are also included below.