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Role Theory
A framework to investigate the community nurse role in contemporary health care systems
Kim Brookes
Clinical Nurse Consultant, St George Hospital, Sydney South East Illawarra Area Health Service, School of Nursing, University of Western Sydney, Sydney NSW
Patricia M Davidson
Professor of Cardiovascular and Chronic Care, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University of Technology, Sydney Campus, NSW
John Daly
Dean, Faculty of Nursing Midwifery and Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney NSW
Elizabeth J Halcomb
Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing, University of Western Sydney, Sydney NSW
Abstract
Nurses' perceptions of their role are influenced by societal attitudes, government policies and trends in professional issues. Dynamic factors in contemporary health environments challenge traditional nursing roles, in particular those of community nurses. Role theory is a conceptual framework that defines how individuals behave in social situations and how these behaviours are perceived by external observers. This paper reviews the role theory literature as a conceptual framework to explore community nurses' perceptions of their role. Three theoretical perspectives of role theory have emerged from the literature review:
- social structuralism
- symbolic interactionism and
- the dramaturgical perspective.
These philosophical perspectives provide a useful framework to investigate the role of community nurses in the contemporary health care system.
Keywords
role theory, conceptual framework, community nurses, models of care
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