Getting Started
Within this guide, you'll find a collection of resources related to different nursing theorists and theories. While we in the library understand that your assignments may require to use sources published within the last five years, items included on this page may be older. This is for a number of reasons:
- Titles such as Nursing Theorists and Their Work have been around a long time. Some entries have been updated since the first edition was published. Others have not and the content remains the same from year to year, such as the primary source materials.
- Your theorist may not be writing anymore. Their original writings will not have come from within the last five years but are nonetheless valuable resources for your research. We can always find current research related to those theories in practice.
Please keep these notions in mind as you research your theorist.
If you have questions about any resources mentioned in this guide or any questions regarding your research, please contact a Librarian
Index of Theorists
Click name of theorist to jump to relevant section:
- Abdellah, Faye G.
- Patient-Centered Approaches to Nursing
- American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN)
- The Synergy Model
- Artinian, Barbara
- Intersystem Model
- Beck, Cheryl
- Postpartum Depression Theory (Middle Range Theory of Traumatic Childbirth)
- Benner, Patricia
- Model of Skill Acquisition (Novice to Expert Model)
- Eakes, Burke, & Hainsworth
- Theory of Chronic Sorrow
- Erickson, Tomlin, & Swain
- Modeling and Role-Modeling
- Henderson, Virginia
- Principles and Practice of Nursing (Nature of Nursing)
- Johnson, Dorothy
- Behavioral System Model
- King, Imogene
- King’s Conceptual System and Theory of Goal Attainment
- Kolcaba, Katharine
- Theory of Comfort
- Leininger, Madeleine
- Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality
- Lenz, Elizabeth R. & Colleagues
- Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms
- Meleis, Afaf Ibrahim
- Transitions Theory
- Mercer, Ramona
- Maternal Role Attainment
- Mishel, Merle
- Uncertainty in Illness Theory
- Nightingale, Florence
- Notes on Nursing (Environmental Theory)
- Neuman, Betty
- Neuman Systems Model
- Newman, Margaret
- Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness
- Orem, Dorothea
- Self-Care Deficit Theory
- Parse, Rosemarie
- Theory of Human Becoming
- Pender, Nola
- Health Promotion Model
- Reed, Pamela G.
- Self-Transcendence Theory
- Rogers, Martha
- Science of Unitary Human Beings
- Roy, Callista
- Roy Adaptation Model
- Watson, Jean
- Theory of Human Caring
Web Resources
- NursologyA repository for resources about nursing conceptual models and theorists. Provides a brief overview of each theoretical model along with a list of primary source literature.
- Evidence-Based Practice ModelsA useful table comparing EBP nursing models, from Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing. The eBook isn't freely available, but the table (added as an appendix) is.