The nursing student is taking a class in Nursing Research. In class she has learned that the most ...

ANS: A
A metaparadigm, as the most abstract level of knowledge, is defined as a global set of concepts that identify and describe the central phenomena of the discipline and explain the relationship between those concepts. For example, the metaparadigm for nursing focuses on the concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing. The next level of knowledge is a philosophy, which is a statement about the beliefs and values of nursing in relation to a specific phenomenon such as health. The third level of knowledge is a nursing conceptual framework, or model, which is a collection of interrelated concepts that provides direction for nursing practice, research, and education. The fourth level of nursing knowledge is a nursing theory, which represents a group of concepts that can be tested in practice and can be derived from a conceptual model.