Advanced Nursing Theory

Week 11 Assignment

This blog has been written in order to fulfill an assignment for the Advanced Nursing Theory class at the University of North Alabama as taught by Dr. Kristy Oden.

Chaos Theory in Nursing

        When applied to nursing, Chaos Theory is connected to every facet of nursing research, theory, and practice. The whole purpose behind nursing research is to gain knowledge and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of nursing practice, thus, forming nursing theories to improve nursing care and help negate the ill effects of Chaos Theory. Since Chaos Theory is based on the unknown variables, the goal of nursing research is to study any possible variables that could negatively impact nursing care, and form plans and policies to remove those variables from the equation. According to McGuire, scientists in the late twentieth century were challenged by Chaos Theory, and it did not fit into their predetermined notions of predictability (1999). If they understood it better, most nurses would find that Chaos Theory fits very well into their understanding of the nursing practice on a daily basis. Most nurses can give examples of patient outcomes that did not fit the status quo or just didn’t seem right, no matter what the scientific and medical data said would happen to the patient. In medicine and nursing, there is never a chance of knowing, one hundred percent, the outcome of a procedure or practice. The truth is that the smallest changes or unseen circumstances can drastically alter the results in unforeseen ways. This inability to predict accurate results one hundred percent of the time is the essence of Chaos Theory.

       In our practice, Chaos Theory is possibly used every day in some way. In general, Chaos Theory looks at the unknown variables. In a physician's office, we access any incoming patient by not only what they say (subjective data) but also by their body language, physical assessment, and lab work (objective data). We also are continually reassessing the patient as the appointment goes in order to continually assess for possible diagnoses and change ideas of diagnoses as the appointment goes on. In a matter of speaking, this is a direct application of chaos theory in that we try to take into account that there are always unknown variables, and we try to keep that idea at all times.

Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory was born in the 1960’s with the research of Edward Lorenze on global weather patterns and the effect of small changes in the beginnings of a weather system can lead to significant changes over time on a global scale (Black, 2008). Chaos Theory has also been dubbed as The Butterfly Effect by Lorenze, and he is credited with the idea that if a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, then a major storm could be created in another part of the world (Black, 2008). Basically, Chaos Theory is concerned with the inability to predict the outcome of a situation with 100% accuracy because of an immeasurable number of variables that could affect the outcome. Chaos Theory is, in principle, all about the inability to estimate the outcome of any certain situation without some degree of uncertainty. The simplest example that I could find that actually seemed to explain Chaos Theory in a manner that would make sense to most people was by the character Dr. Ian Malcolm, as played by Jeff Goldblum, in the movie Jurassic Park. In the movie, Dr. Malcolm explains Chaos Theory using the example of a drop of water running off of a surface and the inability to correctly predict where the drop will go because of tiny changes in the environment (Spielberg, S. & Crichton, M., 1993).

References

Black, J. (2008). Clinical transformation through the application of chaos theory. Nurse Leader, 6(6), 38-40, 50. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1541461207002765
Dictionary.com. (2013). Chaos theory. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chaos+theory?s=t
McGuire, E. (1999). Chaos theory: Learning a new science. JONAA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 29(2), 8-9. Retrieved from:http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezproxy.una.edu/sp-3.10.0b/ovidweb.cgi?&S=IBNEFPJOCMDDJJIJNCNKBEIBCJNFAA00&Link+Set=S.sh.22%7c1%7csl_10
Spielberg, S. (Director) & Crichton, M. (Writer, Novelist) (1993). Jurassic park. United States: Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-mpifTiPV4

Chaos Theory from the movie Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park video clip about Chaos Theory as told by Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). This theory actually seems to make a good point for the preface of the entire movie. This is not only a very good definition of a solid theory but is also a good description of the basics of Chaos Theory and the Butterfly effect (Spielberg & Crichton, 1993).