Praxis Assignment
Order Description
Praxis Assignment
What have you learned?
The Praxis assignment is asking you to reflect and synthesize what you have learned in previous assignments for this class and develop a personal model/framework for your nursing practice. Setting the stage for this paper, how has your nursing knowledge evolved as a nursing professional? How does the Nursing Metaparadigm relate to your practice? Define your role, phenomena of interest, the concept that brought you to a deeper understanding of the phenomena, your style of thinking or nursing philosophy, and the grand or mid-range theories used to guide patient care. In nursing practice, many nurses use an eclectic approach of theories from nursing and non-nursing theory. Think what guides your thinking and actions in your practice.
Remember an APN is not designed to become a researcher. The PhD program is for those interested in research. The focus for the APN’s is patient care and quality improvement. Yes, APN’s practice must focus on using research and many terms used in research and quality improvement are similar. The scientific underpinnings used to developing your praxis in nursing practice is to guide nursing care that links to patients’ goals of obtaining health and wellness as well as achieving the nation’s goals to improve the health of individuals, families, and communities. Nursing students must recognize collaborating patients and professionals increases the linking of research and theory into clinical practice that will improve the health of a nation.
So, what does this have to do with patient care or keeping patients from harm? What underpins the APN role? Have you conceptualized your praxis for practice? How will this guide your thinking, behavior, and actions in nursing? Well, enough with the questions. The Praxis assignment will demonstrate you have moved up the ladder to a higher level of scholarly thinking and actions.
Since this paper is a synthesis of what you have learned this semester, you should be summarizing what you have learned throughout the course in this assignment. When you develop the graphic model that represents your Framework of Praxis, please save a copy of this document. What you have identified “thus far” as part of your Praxis will be included on the model, you will be adding more models and theories as you proceed forward in the curriculum. A copy of the grading rubric for this assignment is linked below.
Praxis Instructional Video Link:
http://camtasia.usouthal.edu/Camtasia/sroberts/Praxis_instruction_video_Sp2015_-_20150328_172446_18.wmv
Definition of PRAXIS
1
: action, practice: asa : exercise or practice of an art, science, or skillb : customary practice or conduct
2
: practical application of a theory
Critical thinking this semester has brought you to view the world through a different lens – not just black and white but with various shades of gray. First, you pondered and reflected your current nursing practice and identified a concern for patient care when identifying a phenomenon of interest (POI). For a deeper understanding of the POI, you considered others values, beliefs, and opinions to help you search a concept that brought a deeper meaning to you. With the new perspective of the POI, you discovered different actions that can help or hinder your patient, family, or community.
Through critical thinking, you have learned more about yourself and the ways you develop nursing knowledge. In addition, you identified a philosophical way of thinking that guides your thoughts and ideas to help you maintain consistency in work and life (Butts & Rich, 2015). Therefore, praxis is what you “think, feel, and do” (head, heart, and hands). As you will read, there are numerous ways and methods to develop a Framework for Praxis. The content covered this semester has covered different aspects of the components necessary to develop a Framework for Praxis. We believe you now have a good foundation to explore your own framework.
The term “Praxis” is used to describe the unity of theory, research, and practice that each of you experience in your encounters with patients. Praxis provides the recognition that your individual philosophy, theoretical perspective, and your personal value system have a direct impact on your nursing practice (Smith & Liehr, 2014).
There are a series of articles and a book chapter listed in the required readings that will help address the notion of praxis. You will need to read each of the articles with special attention given to the “praxis” sections of the articles. It is not necessary for you to master the content of the article that does not pertain to the praxis content. Another note about the readings…they are not inclusive of all the materials available. We have tried to select articles that look at theory and praxis, philosophy and praxis, research paradigms and praxis, and clinical practice and praxis. Look at the reference lists of the articles to determine if there are additional resources that you would like (or need to) explore to write your Framework for Praxis paper.
The paper assignment requires that you reflect on the discipline of nursing, philosophical underpinnings, theoretical underpinnings, practice underpinning (specifically, the history of your advanced practice role), and place it all in context to your practice/population focus. In addition, we want you to attach an appendix of your personally developed praxis model. Know that you might not “get” the literature the first time through. Know that you might need to read – spend time in reflection – ask questions – explore the article again, or seek a different article or literature for more of an explanation. You have already “done” this work through earlier assignments in this course. Developing your Framework for Praxis is literally synthesizing the material and putting it all together. We recognize the framework you develop for this assignment is just the beginning step for you all. But it is an important first step as you begin to personally define your role and your practice.
Grading criteria Points
Introduction paragraph. There must be a thesis statement that tell the reader the purpose of the paper and what will be discussed /1
Provide an overview of Praxis and discuss the benefit of a framework of praxis to the discipline of nursing and/or the development of nursing knowledge. This discussion should be supported with peer reviewed references. /3
Include an overview of the advanced practice nursing role that you are preparing for, discuss how this role can improve healthcare. Support this discussion with peer reviewed references. /1
Ideological influences: Discuss your philosophical basis for practice. Discuss key elements of the philosophy and define how they contribute to your personal framework. Discuss the influence of your philosophy on your Phenomenon of Interest, concept analysis, and theories. /3
Theoretical influences: identify and discuss the nursing theories as well as general theories that will support your practice. How does your choice of theory benefit your practice? Be sure to address the grand nursing theory, middle range nursing theory, and any other theories you choose to support your practice. /3
Ethical influences: Choose an ethical theory or framework for your practice. Describe the key elements and detail the contribution to your overall framework. This discussion may also include specific ethical principles such as justice, but should not be limited to this. /3
Utilization of Framework: discuss the application of the critical elements of your framework (theories, concept, philosophy, etc) based on a real or invented case study that describes your POI. The key concept you chose for your Concept Analysis should be readily identifiable to the reader. /3
Attach a graphic model of your Praxis framework as an Appendix. All components of the framework should be related to your concept, keep in mind the nursing meta-paradigm. /2
Conclusion: summarize the essential points of the paper
/1
Total points:
/20
Deductions:
Final score:
/20
• The paper should be written in a formal, scholarly style. Correct APA format is required. The paper should be no more than 5-6 pages in length (excluding the Title, Appendix and Reference pages)