Being dissimilar in terms of scope and the intended fields of application, Patricia Benner’s model of skill acquisition and Hans Selye’s theory of general adaptation are connected since both regard adaptation to stress from a temporal perspective and emphasize periodization.
Selye distinguishes between multiple stages of adaptation to an intense stimulus, including accumulation, transmutation, realization, and transition, and Benner’s competence stages involve the novice nurse’s professional journey.
Focusing on nurses’ professional growth rather than purely physical responses to stimuli, Benner still considers adaptation as nurses’ gradual accumulation of experience and details professionalization as a five-stage process that enables novice nurses to transform into advanced beginners, competent nurses, proficient specialists, and then experts capable of engaging in independent decision-making.
Both theories hold that adapting to change, be it entering a new professional role as a nurse or any other stress-inducing stimuli, is gradual and involves going through a set of stages and the acquisition of new characteristics and qualities.
- Patricia Benner’s Nursing Theory
- Personal Nursing Philosophy and Benner’s Theory
- Benner’s Model for Advanced Practice Nurse’s Development
- Patricia Sawyer Benner’s Nursing Theory
- Benner’s Stages of Clinical Competence and Deficit
- Middle-Range Theory Application to the Case Study
- Importance of the Middle-Range Theory in Nursing