Theoretical Nursing: Today's Challenges, Tomorrow's Bridges

Abstract

This article is based on an address delivered at celebrations commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of la Faculté des sciences infirmières at the Université de Montréal, Québec. A different version was originally prepared as a keynote address for the First Annual Theory Conference, the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, in 1986. In 1978, in Alma Ata, Russia, The World Health Organization (WHO) declared its commitment to health for all by the year 2000. It also recommended that the way to achieve this objective is through a strategy of primary health care. Nursing is a most significant force in bringing health to people of the world. Several strategies are necessary to realize the meaning of this declaration. One is the subject of today, the development of theoretical nursing through discovery, description or interpretation.