Piaget And Vygotsky Nursing Theory Essay

Nursing is a profession as variable as humankind. From busy emergency rooms to mental health counselling to academia, nurses range in their knowledge, interests, and skillsets. What is essential to all of these settings is a drive to help people and an understanding of human nature. Thinking critically about a patient’s behaviour is fundamental to providing informed care, enabling nurses to follow the patient’s thought-process and view the world from their perspective. Foundational to this is a comprehension of how people develop, or more specifically, how people’s ability to think develops. Discovering why people do the things they do or why they make poor health decisions would certainly make caring for them easier. Numerous theories have sought to …show more content…
Their respective research bases have made tremendous contributions to the field of developmental psychology, but have also drawn criticism in modern times. Regardless, their work better informs educators and professionals to interact appropriately with individuals across the lifespan, children in particular. Nurses are no exception, requiring constant, constructive communication with a variety of patient populations. Overall, Piaget and Vygotsky provide several valuable insights into how patients behave and develop, save for a few concepts that lack applicability to the nursing profession. Piaget’s theory is noted for its discontinuities. Distinct stages demarcate certain abilities along a scale of age, from using basic senses and reflexes as a newborn to using inductive and deductive logic as an adult. Nurses are in constant interaction with people young and old, and by studying Piaget’s stages they might easier make efficient conclusions about a person’s cognitive abilities relative to their age. For example, hospital charting relies on age as an identifier for patients, along with their name and gender. Taking this number at face value, a nurse can tailor their initial communication