Dear readers,
Let me summarize a bit of the development of nursing, which in our country is still a young discipline and to characterize some important milestones. It will be recalled that in the early field development was the lack of appropriate curriculum that would provide students with sufficient knowledge, skills and capabilities.
At the beginning there was a lack of appropriate curriculum to provide nursing students with adequate knowledge. The curriculum era (1900 to 1940s) addressed the question of what content nursing students should study to learn, how to be a nurse. During this era, the emphasis was on what courses nursing students should take, with the goal of arriving at a standardized curriculum. The curriculum era emphasized course selection and content for nursing programs and gave way to the research era.
The research emphasis era (1950 to 1970s) began to emerge during the mid-century, so the nurses started to understand that the research is the path to new nursing knowledge. Than nurses began to participate in research, and research courses were included in the nursing curricula. In the mid-1970s new problem in nursing occurs – lack of conceptual connections and theoretical frameworks. Awareness of the need for concept and theory development coincided with two other significant milestones in the evolution of nursing theory. The first standardized curricula were prepared for nursing master’s education and the second is the decision that doctoral education for nurses should be in nursing.
The research era and the graduate education era (1950 to 1970s) developed in tandem. Master’s degree programs in nursing emerged across the world wide including European countries. Development of nursing knowledge was a major force during this period. An important precursor to the theory era was the general acceptance of nursing as a profession and an academic discipline in its own right.
The theory era (1980 to 1990s) was a natural outgrowth of the research and graduate education eras. Classifying the nursing models as paradigms within a metaparadigm of the person, environment, health, and nursing concepts systematically united the nursing theoretical works for the discipline.
The theory utilization era (Twenty-first Century) gave the main emphasis to theory application in nursing practice, education, administration, and research. In this era, middle-range theory and valuing of a nursing framework for thought and action of nursing practice was realized. This shift to the application of nursing theory was extremely important for theory-based nursing, evidence-based practice, and future theory development. The theory utilization era has restored a balance between research and practice for knowledge development in the discipline of nursing. The theory utilization era continues today.
The present aim of nursing is improve the health of populations, patients, clients and their families. Nursing in the twenty-first century, focusing on cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, obesity, kidney failure, dementia and other conditions of aging, remain major causes of death and health impact. Issues relating to quality of life and disability are reflected in practice and research. The role of nurses in lifestyle and chronic disease management with an ageing population, and the support of families and carers appropriate, is more important than ever.
Journal Nursing: Theory, research, education always brings current issues affecting the modern nursing issues at home and abroad. Prospectively responds to the requirements of research in nursing and thereby contribute to the development of education, practice and research.
I wish all of contributors and readers to inspire their scientific and publishing aspirations.
doc. PhDr. Mária Zamboriová, PhD.
Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nursing