Theory-practice gap in nursing based on pragmatism approach: a review study

Theory-practice gap is one of the basic and oldest problems of nursing, which has shown itself well in the bedside and training of nurses. The use of philosophical approaches such as pragmatism is a solution to help reduce this gap and recognize the existing challenges in order to solve this gap. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the pragmatism approach on the nursing theory-practice gap.

The present study is a scoping review type and Persian and English articles extracted from internal databases SID, MAGIRAN and IRANDOC and external databases PubMed, EMBASE, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, ProQuest, SCOPUS and CINHEAL in the period from 2012 to 2022 using keywords theory-clinic gap, theory-to-practice gap, theory-bedside gap, theory-practice challenges, practicality challenges of nursing theories, philosophy of nursing education, philosophical schools in education, critical thinking at the clinical, Evidence-based nursing, process nursing and clinical improvement, pragmatism and education, nursing and pragmatism separately, combined and its English equivalent using Boolean operators.

A review of the selected articles showed that the gap between theory and practice based on the approach of pragmatism in nursing is divided into two main categories: a) individual factors including three subgroups: 1) motivation to study and continuous education, 2) strong communication skills, and 3) improving critical thinking, and b) Organizational factors include five main factors: 1) clinical-based training, 2) revision of the curriculum, 3) use of new training methods, 4) empowerment of nurses in different job positions, and 5) provision of new training facilities and equipment.

Paying attention to factors that increase the motivation and information of personnel along with strengthening critical thinking skills along with paying attention to organizational factors such as the use of new educational methods and empowering nurses in different branches can be a factor to reduce the gap in the theory of practice based on the pragmatism approach.