Library
Nursing Theories and Theorists
Articles || Web Sites || Books || Printable Nursing FAQs Handout
Search CINAHL for Articles
CINAHL is the best source for information on nursing theories and theorists It:
- Indexes more nursing journals than Medline
- Indexes books, book chapters, and more, not just journal articles
- Offers subject headings (descriptors) for major nursing theories
- Offers
ability to limit to publication types, such
as "research"
Finding Information About a Nursing Theory
Always begin with a thesaurus search to find a subject heading (descriptor) for the theory you are researching. Search "nursing theory" as a thesaurus term. Click on the term itself to display a list of all nursing theories.
Select the theory, then select "add" button to place the theory subject heading into the search box. Notice that the box immediately to the right changes from "citation and abstract" to "subject".
Now, use the drop down arrow to change "subject" to "major descriptor". This means that your subject term is the main point of the article. If you like, limit to English language and year(s) of publication. Now you're ready to search.
Example:
Orem self-care model as "subject" found 844 articles.
Orem self-care model as "major descriptor" found 237 articles.
Finding Studies that Use a Nursing TheoryBegin with your subject term(s), either keyword(s) or thesaurus terms(s). Add the thesaurus term for the theory. For this search, the box to the right of the theory name should read "subject", NOT "major descriptor".
Example:
Orem self-care model as "subject" (search box 1)
And "pain" as "citation or abstract" (search box 2)
= 60 articles
Plus "document type" = "research"
= 41 articlesThe more limits you use, the fewer articles you will find, but the articles will be more relevant to your search.
My Theory Isn't In the Thesaurus
Perhaps your theory is not strictly nursing. You may search the thesaurus for:
- Physiological theory
- Psychological theory
- Sociological theory
- Models, theoretical
- Or the name of a specific theory
Still No Success?
Search the name of the theory as keywords. If you know the theory's exact name, you can enclose the name in double quotes. If not, place the author's last name in search box #1 and keywords from the theory's name in search box #2. This is an imprecise search strategy, so be prepared for some irrelevant articles.
Search the Internet for Nursing Theory Web Sites
These pages provide links to web sites focusing on individual nursing theories.
- Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science
- Clayton State University Department of Nursing
- NurseScribe
- NursingTheory.net (An Australian site that includes non-nursing theories of interest to nurses)
Search the USF Library Catalog
for Books on Nursing Theory in USF Library
To find books on nursing theory, browse these subject headings:
- Nursing theory
- Models, nursing
Here are some of the books available. All are located in the Health Science collection on the first floor, southeast corner. Distance students who are not able to come to the USF Library may request these items to be sent to them by using our ILLiad system (click here for more details and to access ILLiad).
Author: Sitzman, Kathleen.
Title: Understanding the work of nurse
theorists : a creative beginning / Kathleen Sitzman,
Lisa Wright Eichelberger.
Published: Sudbury, Mass. : Jones and Bartlett
Publishers, c2004.
Call Number: WY 86 S623 2004
Title: Nursing theories : the base for
professional nursing practice / [edited by] Julia
B. George.
Edition: 5th ed.
Published: Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice
Hall, c2002.
Call Number: WY 86 G348n 2002
Title: Nursing theory : utilization &
application / [edited by] Martha Raile Alligood,
Ann Marriner Tomey.
Edition: 2nd ed.
Published: St. Louis : Mosby, c2002.
Call Number: WY 86 N9758 2002
Title: Nursing theories : conceptual and
philosophical foundations / Hesook Suzie Kim and
Ingrid Kollak, editors.
Published: New York : Springer Pub. Co.,
c1999.
Call Number: WY 86 N97374 1999
Title: Nursing theorists and their work
/ [edited by] Ann Marriner Tomey, Martha Raile
Alligood.
Edition: 4th ed.
Call Number: WY 86 N9738 1998
Title: Nursing theories : the base for
professional nursing practice / editor, Julia
B. George.
Edition: 4th ed.
Published: Norwalk, Conn. : Appleton &
Lange, c1995.
Call Number: WY86 G348n 1995
Last Updated: March 7, 2008