The nursing instructor is teaching a class on nursing theory. One of the students asks, "Why do we need to know this stuff? It doesn't really affect patients." What is the instructor's best response?

A) "You are correct, but we have to learn it anyway."
B) "This keeps the focus of nursing narrow."
C) "Theories help explain why nurses do what they do."
D) "Exposure to theories will help you later in graduate school."

Nursing Theory

A conceptualization of some aspect of nursing communicated for the purpose of describing, explaining, predicting, or prescribing nursing care.

Graduate School

Advanced academic programs beyond the undergraduate level, offering specialized education and training in various fields.

Theories

Systematically organized knowledge applicable in a relatively wide variety of circumstances, especially a system of assumptions, accepted principles, and rules of procedure devised to analyze, predict, or otherwise explain the nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena.