Content area
Full Text
When nurses undertake actions based on this validation process, the immediate needs of the patient are met, resulting in the ultimate goal of nursing- patient improvement
ABSTRACT
Ida J. Orlando was one of the first nursing theorists to write about the nursing process based on her own research. Her Deliberative Nursing Process Theory focuses on the interaction between the nurse and patient, perception validation, and the use of the nursing process to produce positive outcomes or patient improvement. Orlando's key focus was to define the function of nursing. This author's purpose is to acquaint nurses with Orlando's theory and to encourage the use of the deliberative process to bring about patient improvement. This article provides an analysis of Orlando's theory and a demonstration of its successful use in clinical practice in an extended care setting.
Although Ida J. Orlando's (1961) Deliberative Nursing Process Theory may not be as well known or studied as the theories of Rogers, King, Roy, or Orem, she made major contributions to nursing research and theory (Fawcett, 1993; Schumacher, Fisher, Tomey, Mills, & Sauter, 1998). As a research associate at Yale, Orlando conducted a study on nursing situations and the resulting outcomes. The findings from her study led to the development of her theory. Orlando believed that nursing is a distinct, autonomous profession responsible for ascertaining that a patient's needs are met either by direct or indirect means. Flynn and Heffron (1988) credit Orlando with being one of the first theorists to publish topics on the nursing process. Her writings on the nursing process also represented an early example of nursing research about nursing practice (Flynn & Heffron, 1988; Schmieding, 1993). This author's purpose is to acquaint nurses with Orlando's work, with a description and analysis of her theory, and to demonstrate the use of the theory in an extended care facility.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF MODEL
In the 1950s, Orlando conducted a study to determine what constituted nursing by conducting research in a practice setting (Schumacher et al., 1998). According to Schumacher et al. (1998), Orlando later stated, in personal correspondence, that the original motivation for her study was a search for facts about nursing's purpose. In her study, Orlando (1961) examined various nursing situations to investigate what...