Updates of the Status Quo of Situation-Specific Theories (2015-2025).
Dongmi Kim, Eun-Ok Im
PMID 41952368WHAT IT FOUND
The mapped nursing theories cover heart failure self-care, miscarriage care, end-of-life communication, and other patient transitions.
They offer frameworks for nurses, not tested evidence that any care improves patient outcomes.
Key findings
01The review grouped 23 included studies into five overarching themes: broadened scope, purpose-driven theorizing, dynamic theory lifecycle, methodological maturity, and integration across practice, education, and research.
02Heart failure self-care was the most extensively theorized condition, with multiple situation-specific theories dedicated to self-care and symptom management.
03The review was designed to map the breadth and applications of labeled situation-specific theories, not to evaluate intervention effectiveness or synthesize outcome evidence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The search only found papers whose authors explicitly used the term situation-specific theory, so relevant theories that were not labeled that way may be missing. Only English-language peer-reviewed journal articles were included, so gray literature and non-English work were excluded. Screening and extraction were mainly done by one reviewer, with team discussion for uncertain cases, so selection bias is possible. The review did not assess the quality or risk of bias of the included theory papers. It was designed to map theory development, not to test whether any theory or nursing action improved patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors report no funding and declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that situation-specific nursing theories improve patient outcomes. The review mapped labeled theory papers and did not evaluate intervention effectiveness or synthesize outcome evidence.