Nursing, Caring, and Complexity Science: For Human Environment Well-Being

by Alice Davidson RN, PhD (Editor), Marilyn Ray PhD, RN, CTN-A, FAAN (Editor), Marian C. Turkel RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FAAN (Editor)

Overview

2011 AJN Book of the Year Winner in Professional Development and Issues!

"This collected scholarship...will inform the personal/professional evolution of caring and nursing into this century and beyond, inviting new visions of the evolved human in the world of practice, education, research, administration, and clinical care. It is truly a visionary futuristic manifesto for this time in nursing and health sciences at all levels."

Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN
University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing
Founder: Watson Caring Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado
(From the Reflection)

This innovative volume explores nursing and complexity science, and investigates how they relate in research, education, and practice. The book examines best methods for using complex systems, with expert contributing authors drawn from nursing, sociology, informatics, and mathematics. Each author is actively involved in studying and applying complexity science in diverse populations and various settings-especially in terms of nursing, chronic care, health care organizations, and community health networks.

Chapters conclude with a response written by a nursing scholar, administrator, or practitioner, focusing on chapter concepts relevant to the complex systems seen in nursing. Chapters also include models that relate how these concepts can be used in practice, management, education, and research-from micro to macro scales. The first of its kind, this book demonstrates the potential of complex systems perspectives in nursing and health care research, education, and practice.

Key Features

• Presents the central concepts of complexity science as they relate to nursing
• Facilitates greater understanding of human caring relationships through the lens of complex organizational systems
• Provides examples of how to create and implement complex systems models that enhance care for individuals, and in leadership roles, organizational caring, nursing informatics, and research methods

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826125880
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/28/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Marilyn A. Ray, RN, PhD, CTN, Professor Emeritus, Florida Atlantic University, is a renowned nursing educator.

Marian C. Turkel, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, is the Director of Professional Nursing Practice and Research at Einstein Healthcare Network (EHN) and faculty associate of the Watson Caring Science Institute (WCSI).

Table of Contents

Contributors

Foreword

Reflection

Prologue

Acknowledgments

1.Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives Related to Complexity Science in Nursing

2.Complex Caring Dynamics: A Unifying Model of Nursing Inquiry

3.Theoretical Issues and Methods for Increasing Understanding of Complex Health Care Systems

4.Relational Caring Complexity: The Study of Caring and Complexity in Health Care Hospital Organizations

5.Why Six Sigma Health Care Is Oxymoronic in Hospitals

6.Entropy as Information Content in Medical Research

7.Caring Science and Complexity Science Guiding the Practice of Hospital and Nursing Administrative Practice

8.Leadership in Complex Nursing and Health Care Systems

9.Mathematical Models of the Dynamics of Social Conflict

10.Modeling the Complexity of Story Theory for Nursing Practice

11.Providing Nursing Care in a Complex Health Care Environment

12.The Complexity of Diabetes and the Caring Role of the Nurse Practitioner

13.Lessons in Complexity Science: Preparing Student Nurses for Practice in Complex Health Care Systems

14.Technological Change in Health Care Electronic Documentation as Facilitated Through the Science of Complexity

15.Implementing Change in Nursing Informatics Practice

16.Human Rights and Humanoid Relationships in Nursing and Complexity Science

Epilogue: Emerging Ideas/Questions for the Future of Nurse Caring and Health Care in a Complex World

Addendum

Index

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Vicki Ann Moss, DNSc, MS, BSN, RN (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh)
Description: This book integrates nursing science, caring science, science of unitary human beings, and complexity science to explore the effects on nursing, complexity, and human environments. The contributing authors come from the disciplines of nursing, sociology, informatics, and mathematics and have been applying complexity science with diverse populations and settings.
Purpose: The purpose is to help readers better understand complexity science and its relationship to nursing.
Audience: The audience includes graduate students or other scholars interested in caring and complexity sciences. It would be a stretch for novices as it contains some very complex ideas and theories.
Features: The book begins with a foreword by Yaneer Bar-Yam from the New England Complex Systems Institute and a reflection from Jean Watson, founder of the Watson Caring Science Institute. Each of the 16 chapters ends with a response written by a nursing scholar, administrator or practitioner. The book ends with an epilogue by authors Marian Turkel and Marilyn Ray titled, "Emerging Ideas/Questions for the Future of Nurse Caring and Health Care in a Complex World."
Assessment: This is not a quick read, but it makes readers think and reflect on the ideas. The responses after each chapter are very helpful in understanding and reflecting on the chapter.

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