Benner, Patricia [b. 1942] , a nursing theorist who confirmed the levels of skill acquisition in nursing practice in From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in ClinicalNursing Practice (1984). Benner used systematic descriptions of five stages: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. Thirty-one competencies emerged from an analysis of actual patient care episodes. From this work seven areas of nursing practice having a number of competencies with similar intents, functions, and meanings developed. They are identified as (1) the helping role, (2) the teaching-coaching function, (3) the diagnostic and patient-monitoring function, (4) effective management of rapidly changing situations, (5) administering and monitoring therapeutic interventions and regimens, (6) monitoring and ensuring the quality of health care practices, and (7) organizational work-role competencies. Benner’s work describes nursing practice in the context of what nursing actually is and does rather than from context-free theoretic descriptions.
