Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Nursing today presents a rich theoretical framework that describes phenomena, explains relationships, predicts consequences, and helps to prescribe nursing care. From a historical perspective, the first nursing theoretical frameworks date back to 1952, with the work of Peplau, subsequently a large and varied number of them have been developed, however, despite the large theoretical framework that supports and guides the work of nursing, they have a relegated importance in the professional work. OBJECTIVE: This brief reflection responds to the objective of highlighting the importance of the theoretical frameworks of nursing as a support for practice and research. DEVELOPMENT: Nursing practice and research is guided and structured by nursing models and theories, which have proven to be very useful with respect to traditional practice, however, there are elements that undermine the correct relationship between academia and practice, it is pertinent to question why this happens if there is sufficient evidence to support the use of models and theories. CONCLUSION: The nursing community is urged to generate proposals that contribute to the reduction of the academy-practice gap, which, according to the present author, corresponds to the light of hope for the improvement of nursing care and science.