Over the past decade, Integral Theory has been an emerging focus of academic scholarship in nursing and other fields. At this nascent period, it is evident that nursing scholars are using Integral Theory in ways that depart from an approach seen in some other disciplines, where Integral Theory is used as a metatheoretical framework for organizing disciplinary knowledge to inform professional practice. The purpose of this paper-based dissertation is to clarify how Integral Theory is being used by the discipline and profession of nursing in relation to the metatheoretical approach used by other disciplines, and to conduct research that contributes a practice-based perspective on Integral Theory in nursing. This has been achieved using the following three approaches, which are presented in three separate papers in this dissertation: 1. The first paper introduces Integral Theory to the nursing community as a metatheory, capable of providing an integrated, coherent view of multiple disciplinary perspectives within nursing and, using a case example, demonstrates Integral Theory’s application in nursing practice. 2. The second paper examines Dossey’s Theory of Integral Nursing from Integral Theory’s metatheoretical perspective. Although aspects of Integral Theory are incorporated into the Theory of Integral Nursing, this paper demonstrates how Dossey’s approach differs from the metatheoretical intent of Integral Theory. 3. The third paper reports on research findings from a qualitative study conducted using an Interpretive Descriptive Research Methodology to investigate how nurses use Integral Theory in their professional work. Findings indicate that nurses in this study used Integral Theory as a map that gave structure to an inquiry process in their nursing practice, while also identifying factors that constrained their use of Integral Theory. The presentation of this dissertation is organized in the following manner. The introductory chapter includes a description of Integral Theory in academic scholarship, its potential usefulness in nursing as a metatheory, and a review of literature on Integral Theory in the professional practice fields of nursing and psychology. The three papers are then presented in three separate chapters, followed by a final chapter outlining implications of this dissertation for the practice discipline of nursing. / Graduate / 0569 / lshea@uvic.ca