KATHRYN BARNARD: BIOGRAPHY OF AN INNOVATOR - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Kathryn E. Bernard was born on April 3, 1938, in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a renowned nursing theorist who developed a Child Health Assessment Interaction Model for the assessment of child health.

Their contributions are linked to the role of interactions between mothers and newborns during early childhood development. Her model and theory were the result of the Nursing Child Assessment Project. She died in Seattle on June 27, 2015.

Kathryn Barnard, a professor of nursing, in 1986.CreditCreditAndy Nelson / The Seattle Times

The Interaction Model for Child Health Assessment

Kathryn E. Bernard graduated from a nursing program at the University of Nebraska in 1960 and that same decade began publishing various works related to the health of infants and their families.

In June 1962 she obtained a certificate of Advance Graduate Specialization in Nursing Education. Seven years later, thanks to her significant contribution to nursing education, she was awarded the Lucille Perry Leone Award.

At first it took care of children and adults with physical and mental disabilities, then it focused on different activities for the study of healthy children and later it was more ambitious: by proposing methods aimed at assessing the growth and development of children and the maternal-infant relationships, where the environment plays an important role in the development of the child and his family.

Bernard proposed that the individual characteristics of each member influence parent-child relationships; Furthermore, he affirmed that adaptive behavior alters said characteristics to meet the needs of the relational system.

Kathryn E. Bernard was nourished by postulates of psychology and human development. Her research focuses on the interaction of mother and infant with the environment. Her theory makes it possible to measure the effects of food, teaching and the environment using different scales designed for this purpose.

It should be noted that his theory was acquiring a more solid body with the passage of time and, of course, thanks to different studies carried out by the nursing theorist in question.

His research changed the way that healthcare professionals perceive parent-child relationships, vital for evaluating children. In addition, their model of mother-child interaction was useful to resolve discrepancies in health regarding different problems that affect the community in question.

Main concepts

Among the main concepts and definitions of his research are: the infant's clarity in signaling, the infant's reactivity to parents, the sensitivity of parents (or caregivers) to the infant's signals, the ability of parents to identify and alleviate infant discomfort and developmentally stimulating social, emotional, and cognitive activities performed by parents.

This model allowed nursing, rather than focusing on the different characteristics and forms of maternal care, to study the mother's sensitivity and response to her child's signs.

Input from Kathryn E. Bernard

In addition to being the creator of the Interaction Model for the assessment of infant health, she was the founder of the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training Project (NCAST), in charge of providing different health professionals from anywhere in the world with different guidelines to assess the child development and parent-child interactions.

It should be noted that Kathryn E. Bernard did not seek to develop a theory, she was a tireless researcher who, thanks to the study between the longitudinal evaluation between nursing and the child, managed to develop the model in question.

His theoretical contributions strengthen the image of nursing as a discipline and profession. In this sense, we must affirm that nursing has gone through different stages of gradual development.

Nursing in history

Before the 20th century, nursing was not considered a discipline, much less a profession. Thanks to Florence Nightingale, the opening of nursing schools and hospitals in the United States began at the beginning of the 20th century.

It is also considered that their contributions were essential for nursing to be recognized as an academic discipline, with its respective specialized body of knowledge.

Nightingale is the creator of the first conceptual model of nursing and her work was one of the theoretical sources used by Katrhyn Bernard in her Interaction Model for the evaluation of infant health, also known as the Parent-child interaction model (title that she received in the first editions).

Discipline and profession

Discipline can be defined as a branch of education, a domain of knowledge, or a department of learning related to a particular school.

The profession is the specialized field of practice, based on a theoretical structure of science or knowledge of a specific discipline and all that it competes (different practical skills).

Nursing today

Higher-level nursing today is seen as a profession capable of using different professional criteria to guide its development.

It could be defined as a science that has a system of theories applicable in a practical way through the nursing care process, in which a professional uses different knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat the human responses of the person, the family or the community.

Nursing can be considered as an independent discipline, since its body of knowledge is made up of different paradigms and general theories from various sciences, concepts from other disciplines and its own foundations.

Other figures in nursing

In addition to Florence Nightingale and Kathryn E. Bernard, there are other figures in the field of nursing whose contributions are unquestionable. Among others are:

Virginia Henderson: Initiating theory of the school of needs, currently used method.

Lydia E. Hall: Model of Essence, Care and Healing; theory that was widely accepted in nursing care units.

Faye Glenn Abdellah: Twenty One Nursing Problems; currently used as a theoretical reference to address the functions of nursing.

References

1. Mosby Dictionary - Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (1999). Ediciones Hancourt, SA Recovered from esacademic.com
2. Ralie, Martha. Models and Theories in Nursing (2015). Publisher: Elsevier. Eighth edition. Barcelona, ​​Spain. Recovered from books.google.co.ve
3. Cuban Journal of Nursing (2017). Editorial Medical Sciences. Volume 33, number 4. Recovered from revenfermeria.sld.cu.
4. Nursing Assistant Manual. Agenda of Oppositions (2003). Editorial MAD. Recovered from books.google.co.ve