Nursing models: extant or extinct?

Abstract

Although nursing models have always had their sceptics, they are now being subjected to more sustained criticism. Critiques have tended to focus mostly on the value of models for nursing practice but, increasingly, their place in nursing science is also being questioned. Reed believes that the growing disparagement of nursing models is symptomatic of the tensions between modernist and postmodernist perspectives on nursing. Drawing its title from Reed's discussion, this paper--from the opposite side of the Atlantic--reflects on the original purpose of nursing models and critically examines their relevance now, using the first and best-known British nursing model (the Roper-Logan-Tierney model for nursing) as the particular example for scrutiny. Although the popularity of this model is acknowledged, Fraser highlights the concern that it has not been tested. Can, and should, models be tested? This question is addressed in view of its apparent importance to the debate about whether or not nursing models have any continuing, legitimate role in theory or in practice.