read-       find myself frequently hearing and identifying myself as “just a nurse”. However, this does a disservice to the profession. Nursing has grown in recent decades as a pillar of healthcare and theory is essential for us as nurses to step into this role. A mistake I made at the beginning of my nursing career, was an extreme emphasis on practice-based nursing and improving my clinical skills. Although skills and knowledge are important for the novice nurse, they are not the only areas that need to be expanded upon. Only recently have I evolved past that viewpoint and started narrowing in on theory as well as practice. Nursing theory must be enhanced and brought into practice for nursing to continue to grow as a profession. The melting of knowledge, practice, and theory is imperative for the nursing profession to develop (Younas & Quennel, 2019). This is even more emphasized when the nurse continues in their career as a Nurse Practitioner (NP). The NP must focus on their patient individually and holistically in order to have the patient develop a true sense of wellness. These concepts are enhanced by nursing theory and allow them to be adaptable to different situations. Nursing theory has developed in the hope of creating more autonomy and independence for the NP (McCrae, 2012). As a country, there is more support for the NP, and the career field is growing rapidly. The development of nursing theory can support the continued push for more independent practice by NPs. The relationship that the NP has with their patients is a wonderful opportunity to highlight nursing theory and integrate it into one’s practice.  If the profession continues to view itself through the constraints of evidence-based practice only, it will continue to be disregarded in the healthcare community.

please contributes unique perspectives or insights gleaned from personal experience or examples from the healthcare field,  add content or insights or asks a question that will add to the learning experience and/or generate discussion. information in logical, meaningful, and understandable sequence, and is clearly relevant to the discussion topic. Grammar, spelling, and/or punctuation are accurate. 1 paragraph