Borrowed theories, shared theories, and the advancement of nursing knowledge

Despite the continued use of borrowed theories in nursing, little attention has been given to determining whether theories developed ill another disci pline are empirically adequate descriptions, explanations or predictions of nursing phenomena. lit this article, we demonstrate how a borrowed theory can be placed within a nursing context by linking it with two different con ceptual models of nursing. We present our plans for research focused on con dom use behavior and discuss how results from these studies will be used to determine whether the borrowed theory can be considered a shared theory.