Concepts

Abstract

One approach to building nursing knowledge is the identification of relevant concepts that describe the structure of the discipline. The development and validation of concepts in nursing build scientific knowl edge of the discipline. Concepts are essential elements of theories. The ories provide an approach to describe, explain, and predict phenomena to strengthen the scientific basis of nursing. Concepts are the categories of a theory that serve as guides for making observations in the empirical world. The focus of this article is the nature and function of concepts. A process for developing concepts is presented and one of the critical concepts in the author's theory of goal attainment, transactions, is used to demonstrate the process of concept development through research. '

Keywords

Concept Theory Concept Development Transactions

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