Virginia Henderson’s Nursing Theory: Background, Summary, And Evaluation

Background information about the theorist

The name of the founder of this theory is Virginia Henderson. She was born on 30^th November 1987 in Kansas City of Missouri. She went to the Army School of Nursing and in the year 1921, she finished her graduation. This school was situated in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. She got her Bachelor’s degree in the year 1932. She completed her post-graduation in nursing, in the year 1934. She died on 19^th March in the year 1996. She is known as Florence Nightingale of modern nursing. Once she graduated from the Army school of nursing, for two years she worked at the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service. After this, in Norfolk Protestant Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia she started working as a teacher. This was in the year 1923. She completed her post-graduation and joined the Teacher’s College. She worked there as a member of the faculty till the year 1948. After the year 1953, she joined Yale’s University School of nursing. She served as a Research associate there. Five colleges offered her a doctorate degree. These colleges were Catholic University of America, Pace University, the University of Rochester, the University of Western Ontario, and Yale University (AAHN, 2018). She defined nursing as “The nurse’s distinctive job is to support the individual, whether sick or healthy, in performing those acts that contribute to health, recovery (or peaceful death) that he would execute unaided if he had the required strength, will, or knowledge” (American Sentinel College of Nursing and Health Sciences, 2021).

Once the patients get the desired treatment and move to the phase where they can recover from their conditions, it becomes very important for them that they are able to take care of themselves once they are out of the hospital. To this aim, nurses must provide care for the patients while also assisting the patients in becoming more self-sufficient and achieving objectives and benchmarks on the path to recovery. Virginia Henderson’s theory provides a solution to this problem and provides support to the nurses so that they can assist their patients in taking care of themselves once they are out of the hospital (Nursing-Theory.org, 2022).

She described the roles of nurses as substitutive, which the nurse PHUK, performs for the patients, supplementary, which means that they should be ready to help their patients, and complementary which means that they should engage with their patients to perform some activities. The responsibilities of nurses are to help the patients to become healthy individuals again. She divided the activities of nurses into 14 different types of categories depending on the needs and requirements of the patients. Nurses are accountable not just for their patients, but equally for helping the patients in retaining their identity when the patient’s exit from their supervision. This guarantees that the patient never has to go through any sort of difficulty throughout his or her rehabilitation from illness or injury and that resuming self-care is simpler when a nurse is present to encourage the patient until he or she returns home (Gonzalo, 2021).

Summary of the theory

Virginia Henderson’s theory of nursing was devised when Henderson was still a student of nursing at the Army School of Nursing in the early 1920s. The education that she received in that school and her clinical practice were the factors that impacted and moulded the emergence of her concept across time. When she was offering her help and support to the soldiers in World War I, she understood the need of performing nursing operations as fast as possible. Henderson’s schooling focused on encounters in nursing, training, and investigation, as well as suggestions from nursing peers, which prompted her to describe a nurse’s position and purpose after graduation in 1921 ((Nursing-Theory.org, 2022).  Henderson divided nursing care into 14 components which are breathing normally, eating and drinking sufficiently, eliminating waste generated by the body, moving and maintaining the desirable positions, sleeping and resting properly, selecting suitable clothing, maintaining the temperature of the body within the normal range, maintaining the hygiene and protecting the skin, avoiding the environmental hazards, communicating the fears, emotions, and opinions, providing care by keeping the faith under considerations, performing care with a sense of accomplishing something, playing or participating in many forms of recreation, learning, discovering or satisfying the curiosity that can result into normal healing (Mangine, 2020).

According to Henderson’s theory, the nurse can be considered competent if she decreases the rate of mortality among people they care for, reduce the rate of morbidity, decreases the symptoms of the disease, reduction in the symptoms of psychological issues, decrease the dependency of the patients on others and being the advocates of the patients (Mangine, 2020).

I have chosen this theory because this theory can be applied to any kind of clinical situation that can arise when the nurses are taking care of their patients. This theory can also help the nurses in making clinical judgments that are effective in offering the care that is the best for the patients. This theory also helps the nurses in the decision making process. The knowledge of this particular theory will also help me in making an informed choice when it comes to providing care to my patients. This theory will also help me in preparing for future challenges that I might encounter in my nursing profession. Henderson’s study is classified as a nursing concept since it includes a description of the profession of nursing as well as a list of fundamental demands of nursing. She emphasizes providing care to patients, which includes nursing treatment and training, in order to assist patients, achieve a degree of autonomy. I may adapt Henderson’s nursing theory to practical circumstances by learning about its roots and important aspects, as well as how it links to my ethics and views.

Background information of the theory

My nursing beliefs involve assisting and advocating for patients in order to build trustworthy partnerships. In my profession of nursing, I emphasize religious ideas as well as family virtues such as resilience and togetherness. Along with the need for higher education in broadening my understanding and analytical reasoning abilities. My principles and views are comparable to that of Henderson’s as we both feel in assisting that in the delivery of the optimum possible treatment to patients, maintaining strong partnerships, and the necessity of professional training.

Following the research and examination of a theory of the nursing profession, evaluation is the method of determining its validity, usefulness, and importance. According to Smith & Parker, (2014), there are several methods of evaluating a theory. One of the methods that have been used in evaluating this theory includes the following criteria which are Substantive foundation, Structural integrity, and Functional adequacy.

The substantive foundation refers to the theory’s significance or how it relates to the current understanding of professionalism. The question that needs to be asked while evaluating this theory is how it aligns with the disciplinary emphasis on the profession of nursing, standardization of hypotheses, the factual significance of an occurrence, and its development in clinical practice. Structural integrity forms and connects with the theory’s structure and organization. Concerns regarding the clarification of theory descriptions, the conformity of the stage of the abstract idea, the easiness of the theory, and the rational depiction of connections between theories are all part of the evaluation process (Smith & Parker, 2014).

The potential of a theory that can be utilized in profession and research is referred to as functional adequacy. The theory’s utilization to professional and patient populations, the characterization of evidence based markers, the existence of documented illustrations of practice and investigations utilizing the theory, and the transformation of the theory through questioning are all topics of discussion (Smith & Parker, 2014). 

Any kind of theory of the nursing profession can be a very helpful guide for the nursing professionals in organizing their activities and in enhancing their knowledge. Virginia Henderson’s theory can help nurses in taking action in many different ways. For example, this theory can be helpful for the nurses and other healthcare professionals in knowing the significance of the autonomy of the patients. It helps the nurses in investigating all the 14 fundamental requirements of the patients. It also teaches the nurses in assessing, planning, and evaluating their chances related to the needs of the patients (Ahtisham & Jacoline, 2015). Furthermore, nurses can specify the measures they take to support patients to preserve their wellbeing and retrieve from illnesses that induce reliance on something or somebody else. Henderson proposed a hypothesis to support nursing staff understand their patients’ requirements and explain the benchmarks they needed to encounter, such as learning, expertise, abilities, and a willingness to assist. Though nursing staff could be perplexed by the complete absence of a link among physiological and other attributes of individuals, they are given a concise manual to the regions that must be explored, such as dietary habits, clothing choices, and resting choices (Sitzman, 2017). Furthermore, nurse practitioners discover how to interact with patients, the kind of relevant questions they must ask, and why patients’ autonomy should always be the foundation of nursing practice. Because presumptions are inherent, nurse practitioners have the possibility to establish their own conceptions and rationalizations, which may benefit the nursing profession in a number of different directions (Sitzman, 2017).

References 

AAHN. (2018). VIRGINIA A. HENDERSON 1897 – 1996. https://www.aahn.org/henderson

Ahtisham, Y., & Jacoline, S. (2015). Integrating Nursing Theory and Process into Practice; Virginia’s Henderson Need Theory. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 8(2).

American Sentinel College of Nursing and Health Sciences. (2021). Virginia Henderson: The Nightingale of Modern Nursing. https://www.americansentinel.edu/blog/2020/09/08/virginia-henderson-the-nightingale-of-modern-nursing/#:~:text=Henderson’s%20Nursing%20Theory,necessary%20strength%2C%20will%20or%20knowledge.

Gonzalo, A. (2021). Virginia Henderson: Nursing Need Theory. https://nurseslabs.com/virginia-hendersons-need-theory/

Mangine, D. (2020). Virginia Henderson: The first Lady of Nursing. https://blog.simtalkblog.com/blog/virginia-henderson-the-first-lady-of-nursing

Nursing-Theory.org. (2022). VIRGINIA HENDERSON – NURSING THEORIST. https://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Virginia-Henderson.php 

Sitzman, K. (2017). Understanding the work of nurse theorists: A creative beginning. https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgrrtnp/31/4/402.full

Smith, M., & Parker, M. (2014). Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice (4th ed., pp. 31-32). F. A. Davis Company.