CONCEPT ANALYSIS STRATEGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MIDDLE-RANGE NURSING THEORIES

Marcos Antônio Gomes Brandão,Priscilla Alfradique De Souza,Rafael Oliveira Pitta Lopes,Jaqueline Santos De Andrade Martins,Cândida Caniçali Primo,Claudia Angélica Mainenti Ferreira Mercês

doi:10.1590/1980-265x-tce-2018-0390

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: to reflect on strengths and limitations of the concept analysis strategies as resources for the development of middle-range nursing theories. Method: a reflection study of metatheoretical nature. Results: strategies for concept analysis for the development of middle-range nursing theories are presented. The philosophical foundations of concepts and their interface with the analytical procedures were presented. It has been found that Nursing uses three approaches for concept analysis: adapted Wilsonian, evolutionary and pragmatic utility. The concept analysis strategy was illustrated by the Interactive Theory of Breastfeeding. Conclusion: concept analysis strategies have been employed in nursing to develop theories and to refine the concepts and terminologies used in research and practice. Despite their widespread use, there is still great diversity of methods used and some uncertainties that hinder their implementation.

Highlights

Positivist tradition, and later post-positivist tradition, place relevance in the formal construction of theories and indicate science as having the primary purpose of testing theoretical explanations.[1,2] In this perspective, theory, as a symbolic representation of invented or discovered aspects of reality, would have the potential to expand the scope from a purely professional field of knowledge to an academic discipline.[3]Post-positivist discourse, as well as other philosophical contributions, must be limited to the contextual, epistemological, historical and social fields of application to avoid dogmatic positioning in science
The advantage of the balance between philosophical, theoretical concepts/dimensions and empirical aspects for the construction of knowledge is highlighted as an essential criterion for disciplinary progress.[4]
The study allowed to reflect on strengths and limitations of concept analysis strategies as resources for the development of middle-range nursing theories, seeking to collaborate in the expansion of knowledge on the theme by detailing aspects of different strategies and confronting them with philosophical elements that guide them

Summary

Introduction

Positivist tradition, and later post-positivist tradition, place relevance in the formal construction of theories and indicate science as having the primary purpose of testing theoretical explanations.[1,2] In this perspective, theory, as a symbolic representation of invented or discovered aspects of reality, would have the potential to expand the scope from a purely professional field of knowledge to an academic discipline.[3]Post-positivist discourse, as well as other philosophical contributions, must be limited to the contextual, epistemological, historical and social fields of application to avoid dogmatic positioning in science. Positivist tradition, and later post-positivist tradition, place relevance in the formal construction of theories and indicate science as having the primary purpose of testing theoretical explanations.[1,2] In this perspective, theory, as a symbolic representation of invented or discovered aspects of reality, would have the potential to expand the scope from a purely professional field of knowledge to an academic discipline.[3]. The advantage of the balance between philosophical, theoretical concepts/dimensions and empirical aspects for the construction of knowledge is highlighted as an essential criterion for disciplinary progress.[4] both professional practice and academic knowledge would be relevant and inseparable in the current state of scientific professions. If on one hand the theories, as constructs of abstraction above hypotheses and laws, must be recognized in their ability to produce adequate descriptions, explanations, predictions, or prescriptions for phenomena; on the other, they need to guide scientific research and professional practice

Objectives

Conclusion