Professional nursing practice grounded in the theoretical framework of the discipline: Reality or utopia

Abstract

Background: Supporting nursing practice on the disci-pline’s conceptions is currently one of the biggest challenges, which is why it is important to understand nurses’ views. Objective: Analyzing hospital nurses’ perception of the relevance of the theoretical framework for sustaining their professional practice. Methodology: A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study carried out in 19 hospitals, involving 56 nurses. The tool used for collecting data was a semi-structured interview. Results: Data analysis resulted in the following categories: Relevance of the theoretical framework for professional practice in nursing; Theoretical framework guiding professional practice in nursing; Constraints to the integration of the theoretical nursing framework and Strategies for the integration of theoretical nursing framework. Conclusion: Nurses’ intention to adopt a practice based on the theoretical framework of the discipline has been nega-tively influenced by their practice environment and by the difficulty in understanding and integrating the theoretical framework, thus resulting in the need to adopt strategies.