Glossary of Terms

A listing of nearly 400 terms from Accountability to Workforce Issues. All the terms discussed in the book are represented here with clear and thorough definitions.

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A

Accountability	Being answerable for judgments and actions taken while practicing nursing.
Active Listening	The listener communicates interest and attention to the person communicating.
Adaptation Model	Roy’s conceptual model of nursing that focuses on the responses of the human adaptive system, which can be an individual or a group, to a constantly changing environment.
Advance Directives	Instructions from competent individuals on the care they want to receive if they are unable to make or communicate decisions.
Affective Domain	Includes individual attitudes, feelings, and values.
Andragogy	A model of learning that recognizes that the accumulated life experiences of adults give them different teaching and learning needs from those of younger learners.
Application of Principles	Nurses analyze the nature of the problem or situation, asking “why" questions.
Assumption Identification	The critical identification of the perceived “givens" in a particular situation.
Attendance	In an effective group, members are punctual, involved, and energetically focused on the task or purpose of the group.
Authoritative Leaders	Maintain strong control over group members, give orders, dominate groups, and motivate others with fears and rewards.
Authority	The client’s perception that the professional has the knowledge and skills to make professional judgments.
Autonomy	The right of self-determination, independence and freedom to make decisions.
Autonomy and Self-Regulation	Independent judgment and self-government within the scope of practice.

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B

Barriers to Communication	Things that tend to block communication; they include false reassurance, giving advice, probing, stereotyping, social comment, changing the subject, and use of jargon.
Basic Human Rights	These rights include beneficence, full disclosure, self-determination, and privacy and confidentiality.
Behavioral Systems Model	Johnson’s conceptual model of nursing, which focuses on the person as a behavioral system made up of all the patterned, repetitive, and purposeful ways of behavior that characterize life.
Behavioral Objectives	A frame of reference for the intended outcomes of a teaching/learning activity.
Behaviorist Perspective	Classic stimulus-response and operant conditioning.
Benchmarking	The process of comparing what an agency is doing with what the best in the industry is doing.
Beneficence	Obligation to “do good" for others.
Best Practices	A practice that has been proven to work, to accomplish a goal.
Bill	A proposal for a law, authored or sponsored by a representative or senator.
Bioterrorism	The use of microorganisms that cause human disease, or of the toxins released from them, to harm people, elicit widespread fear, or intimidate society.
Breakthrough Drugs	New pharmaceuticals on the market.

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C

Capitation	A prospective payment system that pays providers a fixed amount per enrollee per month for a defined set of services.
Case Management	Care delivery model that focuses on coordination, integration, and direct care delivery and places controls on the resources used for care.
Category A Agents	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) high-priority biologic agents.
Category B Agents	CDC’s medium-priority biologic agents.
Category C Agents	CDC’s third-highest-priority biologic agents, including emerging pathogens that could be engineered for mass dissemination in the future.
Centralization	Describes any organization in which control or management is in the classic bureaucratic style, governed from the top down.
Change	A process that results in altered behavior of individuals or groups.
Change Agents	The role of moving for change in behaviors, attitudes, actions, and perceptions in individuals, families, community groups, and society.
Channel	The medium or way that is chosen to convey a message.
Check Sheets	The tool used to record multiple events by putting a check in a box.
Chemical Weapons	Chemical substances ranging from warfare agents to toxic chemicals commonly used in industry that are altered to be used for mass physiologic harm to individuals and society.
Chronic Illness Trajectory Framework	A substantive theory that applies to individuals with a broad range of chronic conditions.
Chronicity	Relates to the duration or recurrence of a condition.
Classical Conditioning	Reflexive responses in behavior result from some stimulus.
Cloning	Removal of a cell from an animal and its place in an appropriate growth environment, where it develops into an identical reproduction of the animal.
Code of Ethics	Standards for professional practice that identify expected behaviors with clients and colleagues.
Cognitive Domain	Consists of knowledge and thought processes within the individual’s intellectual ability.
Cognitive Learning Styles	The ways that learners perceive, think, organize, use, and retain knowledge.
Cognitive Theories	Theories of learning that focus on the intellect and development of knowledge.
Cohesiveness	In a group setting, cohesiveness among the members is demonstrated by indications that the members are working together toward the group’s common purpose or goal.
Collaboration	Actively working together as a group to meet an identified goal.
Collegiality	Sharing responsibility, respect, collaboration, and authority to achieve a goal or prescribed outcome.
Committee Structure	Most of the work of Congress takes place in committees because that is where proposed measures are given the most intensive consideration and people have an opportunity to provide testimony for consideration in the record.
Communication	Consists of all cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses used to convey a message to another person.
Communication Models	Frameworks explaining the process of communication.
Communication Patterns	Within a group, these patterns provide valuable information on is the presence or absence of a common focus, respect, and decision making.
Communication and Publication	Characteristics of professionals to convey innovative ideas to others.
Community Health Nursing	A synthesis of nursing and public health.
Community or Civic Involvement	A professional obligation to become involved in activities that serve to assist members of the public or the political process.
Community Sanction	Regulation of professional practice through statutes, rules, regulations, and expectations of practitioners.
Community Service	An obligation of a profession to provide service to the public.
Competencies	Qualities that illustrate effectiveness and appropriateness in professional roles.
Computerized Patient Record	Electronic version of the patient record.
Concept	A view or idea that people hold about something.
Concept Formation	Similar to the nursing process; the nurse needs to identify known data, determine common characteristics, and prioritize data.
Conceptual Model or Framework	Represents some phenomenon of interest and contains concepts and propositions that are broader in scope than those in a theory.
Conference Committee	Where a bill is “sent" so that members of the two legislative chambers can reconcile differences between their versions and prepare a conference report for approval by both chambers.
Conservation Model	Levine’s conceptual model of nursing, which focuses on conservation of the person’s wholeness.
Construct	A more complex idea package of some phenomen that contains many factors but cannot be confined to a more concrete concept.
Contexts	In the Health Communication Model, the settings in which health communication takes place.
Continued Professional Nursing Competence	Ongoing and current professional nursing knowledge, ability, and learning according to level of expertise and practice area, as defined by benchmarks of safe and effective practice.
Continuing Education	Acquiring ongoing knowledge and improving skills as a requisite for practice.
Continuous Quality Improvement	Quality improvement that is ongoing and uses proactive and reactive strategies.
Core Competency	Basic expectations and areas of knowledge for a profession.
Cost-Benefit-Burden Ratio	In addition to looking at the costs and benefits of a given treatment, this analysis looks at the patient’s perception of a planned intervention.
Cost-Effectiveness	An economic evaluation technique that assesses competing programs that are designed to achieve the same or a similar objective.
Creativity	One sign of effective group functioning.
Critical Pathway	A document that defines and maps out the care for a particular client type.
Critical Thinking	Purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference as well as the explanation of the considerations on which judgment was based.
Cultural Competence	Regarding clients of different racial and ethnic backgrounds through one’s own eyes and through the eyes of the individual clients.
Cultural Variation	In communication patterns, these variations are learned unconsciously through the observations of behavior of significant individuals in the client’s culture.
Culture Care Diversity & Universality	Leininger’s grand nursing theory, which focuses on the discovery of human care diversities and universalities and ways to provide culturally congruent care to people.

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D

Data Collection	Specific research methods used to gather the measures and responses obtained from the subjects in a research study.
Data Sheet	Data collection tool used to record occurrences in a study.
Decentralization	Distribution of authority downward in an organization, allowing decision making and control at local levels.
Decoder	The one who interprets the message received.
Deduction	Empirical research based on strict and linear rules of the scientific method and on the philosophical perspective of positivism guided by a controlled set of steps that one goes through to observe something or test a hypothesis.
Delegation	The transfer of responsibility for the performance of an activity from one individual to another while retaining the accountability for the outcome.
Deliberative Nursing Process	Orlando’s middle-range predictive nursing theory, which focuses on an interpersonal process between people. It helps identify the nature of the patient’s distress and his/her immediate needs for help.
Demand	The amount of a service that consumers are willing and able to buy at specific prices.
Democratic Leaders	Leaders who are egalitarian, make suggestions rather than commands, and guide group members to use their abilities.
Deontology	System of ethical decision making based on moral rules and unchanging principles.
Descriptive Statistics	Used to summarize and describe data through graphic displays of information, measures of central tendency, and measures of dispersion.
Developmental Theories	Middle-range theories used widely in health care that address personality and cognitive and moral development using a life span perspective.
Diagnosis-Related Groups	The prospective payment system used by Medicare to determine payment rates for hospital services, which are categorized into 495 case types.
Differentiated Nursing Practice	Matching needs with resources, matching the appropriate level of nursing care provider with client needs.
Disability	The inability to do something because of a physical or mental impairment.
Distributive Justice	An individual’s right to be treated equally regardless of race, economic status, and other differences.
Driving Forces	Forces that support change; include the desire to please the desire for different or more novel, effective, or, efficient activities.

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E

Economics	The science that studies how consumers, businesses, and government entities make choices to overcome problems of scarcity.
Educational Group	A group with a teaching focus, whether teaching clients or educating colleagues.
Effective Group	A group with an identified purpose or need and a commitment to the process.
Effectiveness	The extent to which a treatment achieves its intended purposes.
Empirical Research	Research that is based on strict rules of the scientific method and on the philosophical perspective of positivism.
Encoder	The person who interprets a message sent.
Environment	Physical, social, cultural, spiritual, and emotional climate or setting in which a person lives, works, or interacts.
Ethical Rights	Privileges allotted to certain individuals or groups.
Euthanasia	A painless and peaceful death---it can be passive or active.
Evidence-Based Practice	Care delivered on the basis of current knowledge gained from research; integration of the best research with clinical expertise, and client values in order to provide optimum care.
Executive	An individual who has responsibility for an area and utilizes best practices focused on achievement of individuals framed in the particular organizational setting.
External Sources of Change	A major effect on the function of the health care system. They include inputs of energy, information, and materials received from the environment, which are transformed and returned to the environment as outputs.

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F

Facial Expressions	The various movements of facial muscles that provide emotional undertone and feeling whether a person is using verbal communication or not.
Fee-for-Service	Reimbursement system in which insurance companies reimburse hospitals and physicians after services are delivered.
Fidelity	The obligation to be faithful to commitments made to oneself and others.
Flat Organizational Structures	Organizations with a wide base and few layers or tiers for decision making and authority.
Flow Chart	A tool that describes a process in detail and pictures the movement of information, people, or materials.
Focus Areas	There are 28 of them in Healthy People 2010, containing objectives and targets specified for the nation to address the specific trends of the decade.
Formal Nursing Knowledge	The body of conceptual models of nursing and nursing theories.
Framework	A means of providing a structural view of the concepts and relationships proposed in a theory with a limited number of words.
Full Disclosure	A basic human right of research subjects, in that they have been provided with complete information about the risks and benefits of the research so they can make an informed decision about participating.
Functional Group-Building Role	A group member taking on this role will contribute to supporting development of the group and its individual members and meeting relational needs.
Functional Health Patterns	Health perception and management, nutrition and metabolism, elimination, activity and exercise, sleep and rest, cognitive and perceptual, self-perception and self-concept, role and relationship, sexuality and reproductive, coping and stress tolerance, and values and beliefs.
Functional Task Role	A group member taking on this role will contribute to the completion of the task at hand.

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G

General System Model or Theory	This grand theory is concerned with focusing not on isolated parts but on the interrelationships among and between the parts and the whole.
Gestalt Theory	Theory that learning is based on perception of and completion of patterns that are perceived and reorganized by the person.
Goal	Objective that provides focus, sustains commitment, reinforces priorities, and provides a framework for decisions.
Goal Attainment	The criterion for determining the effectiveness of a group---an evaluation whether the intended task was accomplished.
Government	The controlling entity that has the authority to make decisions and regulations for the public good.
Grand Theories of Nursing	Nursing theories that are broadest in scope, made up of abstract and general concepts and statements that cannot be generated or tested empirically.
Grassroots Effort	Mobilization of a group, like a professional organization, conducting activities to influence legislation.
Great Man Leadership Theory	Individuals born into the proper class and family are the persons who should lead the people.
Group	Three or more individuals with some commonality, such as shared goals or interests.
Group Composition	Can be homogenous, with a membership similar in some aspect, or heterogeneous, with a mix of individuals.
Group Decision Making	In an effective group, decision making must occur at the group level, with all members being involved in decisions rather than unilateral actions being taken by the leader or a disruptive member.
Group Focus	Groups may be work-related, educational, therapeutic, or professional.
Group Process	The dynamic interplay of interactions within and between groups of humans.
Group Roles	The clear expectations for leaders and participants within a group.
Group Structure	The extent to which a group is formal or informal.

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H

Hand-held PC	A portable device with computer capability and applications, useful to nursing, for instance, when it contains searchable drug guides, laboratory value references, and task lists.
Health	Well-being, defined and perceived differently in various contexts and by different cultures.
Health Belief Model	An organizing framework to advance health promotion activities by targeting interventions on certain individual variables with the intended outcome being the likelihood of compliant behaviors and preventive recommendations or prescribed regimens.
Health Disparities	Differences in health status of Americans by socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and access to care.
Health as Expanding Consciousness	Newman’s grand nursing theory, focused on health as the expansion of consciousness, with emphasis on the idea that every person in every situation, no matter how disordered or hopeless the situation may seem, is part of the universal process of expanding consciousness.
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)	A managed care plan that either administers or arranges for health care to be provided to its members for a capitated monthly fee.
Health Management Information Systems	The hardware and software necessary to process data into information for multiple uses.
Health Promotion Model	Pender’s model, which is based on research and information on health and health-protecting behaviors with the principal components that interact for participation in health-promoting behaviors, individual characteristics and experiences, and behavior-specific cognition and affect.
Health Promotion Strategies	Changes related to individual lifestyle personal choices made in a social context that can have a powerful influence over one’s health prospects.
Health Protection Strategies	Environmental or regulatory measures that confer protection on large population groups.
Health Report Card	An online interactive tool that helps users find quality information on health plans, hospitals, and providers.
Healthy People 2000 & 2010	Two major health initiatives that focused on health for the nation as a whole by concentrating on wellness and healthful initiatives.
Healthy Communities	An initiative of the American Public Health Association to assist planners in adapting the Healthy People objectives to the needs and resources of individuals’ communities.
Hierarchy of Needs	Part of Maslow’s theory, which contains a ranked structure of human needs, such as physiologic drives, safety, love-belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.
High-Level Wellness	Dunn’s model provides an explanation of the person-environment relationship in health; illustrated as a grid, with a person or group at some point along a health continuum or horizontal axis further influenced by the environment (the vertical axis).
Human Becoming	A unitary construct referring to the human being’s living health in Parse’s grand nursing theory focused on human experiences of participation with the universe in the co-creation of health.
Human Caring	Watson’s middle-range explanatory nursing theory focused on the human component of caring and the moment-to-moment encounters between one who is caring and the one who is being cared for, especially the caring activities performed by nurses as they interact with others.
Humanism	A perspective of learning in which the focus is entirely on the person; the full range of human experiences is regarded as personally experienced and interpreted.
Hygiene Factors	Herzberg’s (1996) maintenance factors in the workplace, such as salary, supervision, company policy, working conditions, status, job security, and the job’s effect on the employee’s personal life.
Hypotheses	Predictions about the variables that the investigation is testing with a subject group.
Hypothesis Testing	Implementing measures to evaluate the predictions in research and test theory.

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I

Independent Practice Association	An HMO model that enters into a contractual relationship with practitioners to provide physician and nurse practitioner services to enrollees.
Indicators	Events that are measured and categorized by type.
Induction	The research process with qualitative research methods that look at discovery and theory-generation.
Ineffective Group	Group with a low level productivity.
Inferential Statistics	Used to test hypotheses, make predictions, and infer from the sample to the population.
Instruments	The measurement tools for collecting data in a study.
Internal Sources of Change	Agency administrative policy and operational factors guiding the system.
Interpretation of Data	Nurses differentiate between pieces of information, determine cause-and-effect relationships among variables, and extract meaning from what they observed.
Interpretation of Feelings and Attitudes	Imperative for determining the nature of values, attitudes and perceptions developed through one’s life experiences.
Involvement	For nurses, includes functioning as health-care providers, members of the health-care team, and members of the profession.

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J

Justice

The obligation to be fair to all people.

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K

Kinesics

Body language.

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L

Laissez-Faire Leaders	Leaders with a permissive, nondirective style.
Law	A mandate of prescribed conduct that requires certain responsibilities.
Leadership Style	A set of behaviors that characterize individuals as they perform their leading role.
Leadership Tasks Theory	A theory propounding that leaders are individuals who consistently engage in certain responsibilities, such as representing the group, affirming values, and envisioning group goals.
Leading Health Indicators	In Healthy People 2010, these indicators document the major public health concerns in the United States. They provide a snapshot to view the health of the nation.
Learning	The perception, analysis, and evaluation of understandable, acceptable, and relevant information for potential application and action.
Learning Environment	Physical conditions for learning, such as the room temperature and the comfort of the chairs.
Legal Obligations	Demands made on individuals by government to fulfill and honor the rights of others.
Lesson Plan	Based on client assessment data, this a document that contains the learning activity plans with objectives, content, setting, strategies, materials, and the means of evaluation.
Literature Review	A report and comparison of all pertinent prior investigations on the topic, variables of interest, theoretical models, and methods used.
Lobbying	Attempting to persuade a legislator or legislative aide of the merits of one’s viewpoint so as to influence legislation.

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M

Managed Care	Health-care system that combines the financing and delivery of health services into a single entity.
Management	The coordination of resources to achieve organizational outcomes; it involves critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making.
Management-by-Objectives	A management approach that focuses on the process and the team to meet the objectives of the organization. It requires the manager to be self-controlled and disciplined and assumes that management and labor want to contribute and to be responsible.
Managerial Roles	Roles demonstrated by an effective manager include direction to meet the desired outcomes for the organization through thoughtful and careful planning, delegation, monitoring, recognition, development, and representation.
Market-Driven System	Health-care system in which most decisions are made by supply and demand, rather than by a particular group of individuals.
Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D	Part A provides hospital insurance coverage; Part B provides supplemental medical insurance; Parts C and D provide prescription drug coverage.
Member Participation	A consideration whether all members of a group are included in the discussions and what roles they are playing as group members.
Message	The content of meaning that is communicated either by verbal or nonverbal cues.
Meta-communication	All factors that influence how a message is perceived; everything taken into account when a receiver is interpreting a message.
Metaparadigm	Overall concern of nursing common to a nursing model, including concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing.
Middle-Range Nursing Theories	Theories that are narrower in scope than grand theories, encompassing a limited number of concepts and a limited aspect of the real world. They are made up of concepts that are measurable and statements that are testable.
Minimal Risk	The probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.
Minority Health	Focuses on the particular needs of groups characterized by race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
Model	A graphic representation of some phenomena.
Moral Obligations	Demands on individuals based on values but not enforceable by law.
Moral Reasoning	An affective process involving an examination of values to guide decisions and actions.
Motivation	A manifestation of internal and external personal and environmental factors that cause people to respond to a situation in the way that they do.
Motivational Factors	Herzberg’s(1996) satisfiers within a job that motivate a person towards higher levels of performance.
Motivational Theories	Managerial theories used to identify and describe the forces that motivate individuals toward a goal.
Moving	In the change process, the restraining forces have been weakened and the driving forces strengthened, realistic goals have been set, and the previous structure is being rearranged.
Multiple Intelligences	Gardner’s (1993) learning theory that looks beyond cognitive capacity and encourages a view of the individual’s cognitive profile.

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N

Negotiation	Effective conflict resolution by a manager that involves reaching a compromise that is acceptable to all parties.
New Science Leadership Theory	Theory holding that to understand leadership, we must focus on relationships, connections, and holism.
Niche Services	Services that fulfill a specific health care need or service, like an ambulatory care center.
Noise	A distinctive feature of the Shannon and Weaver (1949) communication model; noise occurs when certain things are added to the signal that were not intended by the information source---actual static, environmental noises, or the psychological or perceptual distortion of the receiver.
Nonfunctional Group Roles	Actions of group members who interrupt the group process or disrupt group building, task accomplishment, and progress toward the goals.
Nonmaleficence	The principle of doing no harm to others.
Nonverbal Communication	Communication without words; includes messages that are created through body motions, facial expressions, use of space and sounds, and use of touch.
Normative Ethics	Questions involving a choice of actions when rights between parties conflict.
Nurse Practice Acts	Statutes developed and enacted by each state to regulate the profession of nursing within the state and to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
Nurse Reinvestment Act	Legislation that addresses the nursing shortage from recruitment and retention perspectives.
Nursing	A profession, a discipline, and a practice.
Nursing Minimum Data Set	An electronic reporting and assessment tool and uniform collection of essential nursing information that uses a standardized language and allows nursing data to be compared in different populations.
Nursing Informatics	A specialty that integrates nursing, computer science, and information technology to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing.

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O

Obligations	Demands made on individuals to fulfill and honor the rights of others.
Office Applications	Computer uses, such as word processing, spreadsheets, and graphics presentations.
Operant Conditioning	The positive or negative consequences or reinforcers that affect behavior.
Operational Definition	The description specific to the use of a variable in a study.
Option Rights	Freedom of choice to live life as one chooses within a set of prescribed boundaries.
Organization	An arrangement of human and material resources for some purpose, as in the creation of some institution or agency to meet a state aim.
Organizational Culture	The psychosocial subsystem of the organization, the culmination of the norms, attitudes, and values imbedded in the mission and in the expected behaviors of employees.
Organizational Functions	Formal and informal goals and levels of operation, representing the interaction between two organization subsystems---the goals and values subsystem and the technical subsystem.
Organizational Group	Interoganizational groups are those that occur between systems or organizations. Intraorganizational groups are those that exist within a single, overall system or organization.
Organizational Subsystems	According to Kast and Rosenzweig (1985), associations are composed of goals and values, technical, psychosocial, structural, and managerial subsystems.
Organizational Structure	The sum total of the ways in which an organization’s labor is divided into distinct tasks and how coordination is achieved among these tasks.
Outcomes of Care	Results of the health management techniques used.

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P

Paradigm	"Universally recognized scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners" (Kuhn, 1970, p. vii).
Pathologic Aging	A negative interaction between genes and the environment, leading to serious functional limitations for an individual.
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)	Handheld computer device containing references, as well as other capabilities, in an electronic format.
Personal Protective Equipment	Clothing and respiratory apparatus designed to shield an individual from chemical, biologic, and physical hazards.
Philosophy	An overall perspective, belief system, or worldview.
Physical Appearance	Dress, grooming, posture, gestures, and ease of movement, conveying attitudes about self and others.
Planned Change	Conscious effort toward some goal as a deliberate and collaborative process, resulting in altered behavior of individuals or groups.
Point-of-Service Plan	A managed care model that combines HMO characteristics (like capitation) with PPO characteristics (like choice of provider).
Political Action Committees	Associations through which contributions to campaigns can legally be made.
Political Efficacy	The ability to take part in political affairs and to make the system respond to the involved group.
Power	The capacity to effect organizational outcomes.
Precedent	A decision or verdict from a prior case that becomes the example in future cases.
Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)	Managed care model that comprises networks of hospitals and health practitioners that provide comprehensive health services to members for a negotiated fee.
Prescription Drug Act	The 2003 drug benefit provided to Medicare recipients.
Preventive Services	Counseling, screening, immunization, or chemoprophylactic interventions for individuals.
Primary Nursing	A system of nursing care in which one nurse has responsibility and accountability to assess, plan for, provide, and evaluate a client’s response to care.
Primary Prevention	Healthy actions taken to avoid illness.
Priority Areas	The 22 areas specified by the Healthy People 2000 initiative for health promotion and disease prevention with specific objectives and targets to measure success.
Privacy and Confidentiality	The protection of clients at risk of disclosure of unauthorized personal information and data from participation in a research study.
Problem Identification	The initial step of the research process at which the researchers specify what they are interested in studying.
Process Teams	A group formed to take on a project that crosses functions and disciplines and cannot be resolved in day-to-day operations.
Professional Culture	Formal and informal groups represented in a culture.
Professional Development	Pursued through continuing education and specialty preparation.
Professional Groups	Formal and directed at professional issues and at the objectives in the organization’s mission statement.
Professional Organizations	Associations that represent the profession or specialties within the profession.
Propositions	Relational statements in a theory, describing and stating the relationships between or among concepts and constructs.
Provider-driven System	Health-care system in which most decisions are made by health-care providers.
Proxemics	The use of personal and cultural space; refers to how individuals use and interpret space in the communication process.
Psychomotor Domain	The processing and demonstration of behaviors; the information has been intellectually processed and the individual is displaying motor behaviors.

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Q

Qualitative Research	Inductive, theory-generating research used to explore, describe, and illuminate phenomena.
Quality Assurance	Inspection to catch problems and correct individual performances
Quality Improvement	Broader than quality assurance; involves leadership to continually evaluate and improve systems in a search for excellence.
Questions	These are important in the therapeutic communication process and include three types---open-ended, closed-ended, and circular.

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R

Readiness	State of a learner who is willing to change and accept the learning need.
Reactive Thinking	Implies a response to what is and not to what may yet be.
Receiver	The person who receives the message communicated.
Reflective Thinking	Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.
Refreezing	According to Lewin’s theory of change, a process that takes place after change, when a new status quo has been established.
Regulations	Administrative agencies promulgate these rules, which detail and apply the laws.
Research	"A systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypotheses about the presumed relations among such phenomena" (Kerlinger, 1986, p. 10).
Research Critique	An objective analysis of a published research report.
Research Design	The setting for the study, the subjects, the experimental or nonexperimental treatment or grouping methods, the data collection methods, and procedures or protocol.
Research Problem	The central problem that research has been designed to answer.
Resources	Opportunities for assistance that are educational, professional or personal.
Responsibility	Accountability for performance of professional duties.
Restraining Forces	Forces that resist change; they include norms, values, relations among people, fears, perceived threats, and regulations.
Rights	Something due to an individual or group, according to just claims, laws, or morals.
Role Transition	Assuming and developing a new role professionally or personally.
Rural Area	Areas with a population of less than 2500 people.
Rural Health	Focus on the specific and specialized needs of individuals living in rural areas.

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S

Sampling	The use of a subset of the population as a feasible group to study, ultimately generalizing the findings to the population.
SCHIP	Government-sponsored insurance program that helps to fund health care for economically disadvantaged children.
Science of Unitary Human Beings	Rogers’s conceptual model of nursing, which focuses on unitary, irreducible human beings and their environments.
Secondary Prevention	Seeking early detection of a potential problem to mobilize resources and reduce its intensity or severity if the problem is identified.
Self-Care Framework	Orem’s conceptual model of nursing, which focuses on patients’ deliberate actions to meet their own and dependent others’ therapeutic self-care demands.
Self-Determination	A basic human right of research subjects whether or not to participate in a research study after being provided with complete information on the risks and benefits of the research.
Silence	In therapeutic communication, that period when no words are being spoken between the nurse and the client.
Situational Leadership Theory	A theory that recognizes the significance of the environment as a factor in the effectiveness of a leader.
Social Learning Theory	A theory that cognitive learning occurs through observation and imitation.
Source	An individual who decides that a message is to be sent. The same person as the encoder.
Staffing Ratios	Number of nurses allocated to care for a certain number of patients.
Stages of Group Development	Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning.
Standard of Best Interest	Making decisions on behalf of clients that they would have made themselves.
Stewardship	Serving others and advancing their interests rather than one’s own interests.
Streamlining	Designing or organizing to give maximum efficiency.
Successful Aging	A positive interaction between the individual’s genes and the environment, yielding no serious detriment to functioning until the early seventies.
Surgicenters and Urgicenters	Free-standing ambulatory care centers that compete with hospitals.
Surveys	Tools for obtaining input from large groups.

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T

Tall Organizational Structures	Organizations with more tiers and lines of command, with less local decision making at the lower levels.
Teaching	The transmission of information that must be received, understood, evaluated, and used by the learner.
Team Nursing	A method of nursing care delivery under the leadership and supervision of a registered nurse.
Technological Imperative	The principle that if health care technology exists to address a problem, it should be used.
Tertiary Prevention	Actions taken during the rehabilitation phase of an illness to prevent complications or further disability.
Theory	"A set of interrelated constructs, definitions, and propositions that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena" (Kerlinger, 1986, p. 9).
Theory Use, Development, Description, and Evaluation	Obligations of nursing practice to further theory by using data from practice and research and to analyze critically the theory that has been propounded.
Theory X	Theory that views individuals as needing motivation, direction, and control by a manager to fulfill their job responsibilities.
Theory Y	Theory that views individuals as motivated, self-directed, and interested in working toward meeting organizational goals.
Theory Z	Theory that views individuals as trusted, empowered, and actively involved in decision making.
Therapeutic Communication	A purposeful form of communication between the health professional and the client, which allows them to reach health-related goals through participation in a focused relationship.
Therapeutic Group	Group led by a professional and structured according to the specific treatment or client need.
Third Party Payers	Financial intermediaries, such as insurance companies, that pay providers for services and collect premiums.
Tiered Payments	Patients pay one fee to see primary care physicians and higher fees to visit specialists.
Traitist Leadership Theory	A theory that looks at the ideal mix of characteristics that make the most effective leader.
Transactions	In the Health Communications Model, related interactions between a nurse or other health professional, the client and the client’s significant others.
Transformational Leadership Theory	Theory holding that the leader engages the full person of each follower and transforms each to move.

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U

Unfreezing	According to Lewin’s theory of change, a process that involves ending complacency and preparing for change.
Urbanized Area	A city with a densely populated surrounding area of 50,000 or more.
Usual Aging	A gene-environment interaction leading to functional limitations that are not serious enough to affect activities of daily living.
Utilitarianism	Ethical system based on the end justifying the means and the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

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V

Value	The combination of reasonable cost and high quality.
Variables	Concepts that change and contain a set of values that can be measured in a practice or research situation.
Variation	Changes and differences from an otherwise stable process or system.
Veracity	Ethical principle that requires practitioners to tell the truth and not intentionally mislead clients.
Verbal Communication	Communication in which people use words to share experiences with others.
Virtual Meetings	"Meeting" occuring through electronic media among people who are not in the same physical environment.
Voice of Agency	Nurses should become voices of agency by becoming part of the political process, providing needed facts and background on the issues, or serving in an office.

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W

Welfare Rights	Legal entitlement to a good or benefit.
Work Group	Task-oriented group of people focused on a particular work-related activity.
Workforce Issues	The challenges in the profession in practice, in the practice environment, with clients and colleagues, and future professional initiatives.