Nursing Theorist:
Patricia Benner, R.N., P.h.D.,
FAAN,F.R.C.N.
Professor Miller’s Tuesday Clinical
Group: Amanda Nather, Bincy John,
Brittany Coffin, Kimberly Roe, Julia
Kitchings, and Natalie Shelton
Patricia Benner, R.N., P.h.D.,
FAAN,F.R.C.N.
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Patricia Benner is a Professor in the
Department of Physiological Nursing in
the School of Nursing at the University of
California, San Francisco.
Dr. Benner received her bachelor's
degree in nursing from Pasadena
College, her master's degree in medical
surgical nursing from the University of
California, San Francisco, and the Ph.D.
from the University of California,
Berkeley, in Stress and Coping and
Health under the direction of Hubert
Dreyfus and Richard Lazarus.
“Knowledge development in a practice discipline
consists of extending practical knowledge (knowhow) through theory based scientific investigations
and through the clinical experience in the practice of
that discipline” (Benner, 1984)
Dr. Benner’s Theory
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Dr. Benner categorized nursing into 5
levels of capabilities: novice, advanced
beginner, competent, proficient, and
expert.
She believed experience in the clinical
setting is key to nursing because it
allows a nurse to continuously expand
their knowledge base and to provide
holistic, competent care to the patient.
Her research was aimed at
discovering if there were
distinguishable, characteristic
differences in the novice’s and
expert’s descriptions of the same
clinical incident.
Four Domains of Nursing Paradigm:
Client/ Person
• “The person is a selfinterpreting being, that is
the person does not
come into the world
predefined but gets
defined in the course of
living a life.”- Dr. Benner
Health
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Dr. Benner focuses on the lived
experience of being healthy and
being ill.
Health is defined as what can be
assessed, whereas well being is
the human experience of health or
wholeness.
Well being and being ill are
understood as distinct ways of
being in the world.
Environment/Situation
• Benner uses situation rather
than environment because
situation conveys a social
environment with social
definition and meanifulness.
• “To be situated implies that
one has a past, present, and
future and that all of these
aspects….influence the
current situation.”- Dr.
Benner
Nursing
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Nursing is described as a caring
relationship, an “enabling condition of
connection and concern.” -Dr. Benner
“Caring is primary because caring sets
up the possibility of giving and
receiving help.”
Nursing is viewed as a caring practice
whose science is guided by the moral
art and ethics of care and
responsibility.
Dr. Benner understands that nursing
practice as the care and study of the
lived experience of health, illness, and
disease and the relationships among
the three elements.
Nursing theory as a framework for practice…
• Dr. Benner presented her research in: From
Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in
Clinical Nursing Practice.
• Novice, Advance Beginner, Competent,
Proficient, and Expert are the different
components explained in her research.
Novice
• The person has no
background experience of
the situation in which he or
she is involved.
• There is difficulty discerning
between relevant and
irrelevant aspects of the
situation.
• Generally this level applies to
nursing students.
Advanced Beginner
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The advance beginner stage in the
Dreyfus model develops when the
person can demonstrate marginally
acceptable performance having
coped with enough real situations
to note, or to have pointed out by
mentor, the recurring meaningful
components of the situation.
Nurses functioning at this level are
guided by rules and oriented by
task completion.
Competent
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The competent stage is the most
pivotal in clinical learning because
the learner must begin to recognize
patterns and determine which
elements of the situation warrant
attention and which can be
ignored.
The competent nurse devises new
rules and reasoning procedures for
a plan while applying learned rules
for action on the basis of the
relevant facts of that situation.
Proficient
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The performer perceives the
information as a whole (total
picture) rather than in terms of
aspects and performance.
Proficient level is a qualitative leap
beyond the competent.
Nurses at this level demonstrate a
new ability to see changing
relevance in a situation including
the recognition and the
implementation of skilled
responses to the situation as is it
evolves.
Expert
• Fifth stage of the Dreyfus
model is achieved when
“the expert performer no
longer relies on
analytical principals to
connect her or his
understanding of the
situation to an
appropriate action
THE RAP!!!….Featuring DJ Bincy and MC
Natty
Her name is Dr. Benner and she’s the
best…..nursing theorist that you’ll see on ya
test….
Her research on her theory teaches us nurses how
to think clearly
So if you got skills you need more practice Dr.
Benner’s theory will help to relax us…
She discovered skills for a nurse so we don’t have
to put a patients in a hearse
Patricia Benner teaching critical care…. from Bachelors to
Master and Ph.D. Pasadena San Fran and Berkeley if
your looking for more information holla back on the
web at Patricia.com
We’re headed from a novice to an expert…. We’re headed
from a novice to an expert…. We’re headed from a
novice to an expert…. Learning all the principles and
doing the work….. .