Prefacing Knowledge Development in Nursing: Telling Stories

Authors

  • Laura Cox Dzurec

Abstract

In the preceding article, Approaches to Knowledge Development in Nursing, Jacqueline Fawcett addressed relationships among conceptual models, theories and empirical indicators, with regard to three approaches to nursing knowledge development. The three approaches-generation and testing of theories from explicit conceptual models; generation and testing of theories from implicit conceptual models; and induction of conceptual models from existing theories-all are evident in the nursing literature. The approaches are intended to build conceptual-theoretical-empirical structures (CTE structures) to guide nursing knowledge development. As Fawcett attests, separately and in conjunction, these three approaches to knowledge development, along with others, have contributed to the evolution of nursing knowledge. The approaches have made available to the nursing community, middle-range theories and general conceptual models. Through these theories and models, outcomes relevant to nursing can be described or predicted. Conceptual models and theoretical frameworks are the stuff of generalizable nursing knowledge.

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Published

1991-04-13

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Articles