A case for the ‘middle ground’: exploring the tensions of postmodern thought in nursing (original) (raw)
Related papers
Theoretical development in the context of nursing-The hidden epistemology of nursing theory
Nursing Philosophy, 2017
This article is about nursing theories, the development of nursing knowledge and the underlying, hidden epistemology. The current technical-economical rationality in society and health care calls for a specific kind of knowledge based on a traditional Western, Socratic view of science. This has an immense influence on the development of nursing knowledge. The purpose of the article was therefore to discuss the hidden epistemology of nursing knowledge and theories seen in a broad historical context and point to an alternative epistemology for a future context. It is a question about which nursing theories and what nursing knowledge should be developed in order to benefit patients and relatives of the future. We suggest that future knowledge development in nursing be developed in an interchange between theory and practice and guided by philosophy like a kind of pendulum where all three elements are treated as equals. We suggest a framework for the development of nursing knowledge based on a caringethical practice, a theory on life phenomena in suffering and relationship-based nursing, and thereby, we may be able to help patients to be cured, to recover, to be alleviated or comforted when suffering.
Reflections for a nursing epistemology
Texto & Contexto - Enfermagem, 2014
Based on a literature review, we propose to reflect on the nature of nursing knowledge, resulting in a synthesis. Human responses unfold on a stage of unpredictability, with the complexity of human beings and contexts, requiring robust conceptual framework for their understanding. The dialogic, hologramatic and recursive organizational principles are a starting point for understanding the facilitating action of transition processes for welfare. The answers to welfare and health problems, beyond the simple transfer of knowledge, are structured by and for practical action in a swinging movement from practice to theory and back to practice. Nursing finds the epistemological field as a practical human science with public and private knowledge, a process of translation in which knowledge is produced and implemented in a hermeneutical spiral.
Realism and Relativism in the Development of Nursing as a Discipline
ANS. Advances in nursing science
In today's era of nursing, the role of a unique disciplinary knowledge that is grounded in philosophy is essential to inform nursing practice, fill knowledge gaps, improve the quality of nursing education, and guide the theoretical development of nursing. Realism and relativism have contributed to the development of the nursing discipline by providing the basis of evidence-based nursing practice, nursing research, nursing education, and theoretical construction. This article explores the role of realism and relativism in the development of the discipline of nursing and presents their contributions to the work of nurse clinicians, nurse researchers, nurse educators, and nurse theorists.
EC Nursing & Healthcare, 2020
Researchers need to clearly identify the philosophical assumptions that underpin their work if they are to ensure it can be exposed to appropriate academic scrutiny. This paper identifies the ontology, epistemology and methodology associated with the philosophical perspective known as Critical Realism and briefly explains the differences between this approach and other realist perspectives, such as Positivism. It highlights the growing interest in Critical Realism as a foundation for healthcare research. This interest is attributed to its pragmatic approach to knowledge acquisition and understanding in respect of complex social phenomena, combined with its emancipatory aspirations, which are particularly well-aligned with the professional values espoused by those working in the fields of nursing practice and nurse education. Finally, it acknowledges some of the potential problems associated with adopting a Critical Realist approach to a research study and the safeguards which may ensure a robust academic investigation.
Nursing Inquiry, 2012
A critical realist approach to knowledge: implications for evidence-based practice in and beyond nursing This paper will identify some of the key conceptual tools of a critical realist approach to knowledge. I will then apply these principles to some of the competing epistemologies that are prevalent within nursing. There are broadly two approaches which are sometimes distinct from each other and sometimes inter-related. On one side, there is the view that all healthcare interventions should be judged on the principles of randomised controlled trials and the other is a preoccupation with language in which healthcare interventions are subjected to a discursive interrogation. These debates are configured through the idea of a hierarchy of knowledge that is accorded uncritical acceptance by some and virulent distaste by others. I will argue that the notion of hierarchy is problematic and is largely argued for in unproductive epistemological terms. What is required is a shift towards a theory that emphasises the contextual nature of the ways that knowledge is produced and disseminated. In other words, there is no single hierarchy of knowledge, but there are multiple hierarchies of knowledge.
Nursing and the philosophy of science
Nurse Education Today, 1991
Throughout its history, nursing has struggled with definitional issues. Embedded firmly in tradition mothering roles according to McCloskey and Grace (1985), nursing has found it difficult to make transitions into the professional and scientific realms. The professional and scientific status of nursing may not be as gloomy as McCloskey and Grace put it. Leddy and Pepper (1989) for instance claim that nursing has, since the 1960s. dramatically evolved into a scientific discipline. The purpose of this paper is to: 1.
The (Dis)Unity of Nursing Science
This paper looks at the implications of contemporary work in philosophy of science for nursing science. Early work on the nature of theories in nursing was strongly influenced by logical empiricism, and this influence remains even long after nurse scholars have come to reject logical empiricism as an adequate philosophy of science. Combined with the need to establish nursing as an autonomous profession, nursing theory's use of logical empiricism has led to serious conceptual problems. Philosophers of science have also rejected many of the central tenets of logical empiricism, including its focus on the logical justification of theories and the idea that science is, or should be, unified. Instead, there has been an increasing focus on the practice of science, which in turn has led to a pluralist understanding of science that emphasizes the construction of scientific models that are appropriate for certain purposes or in certain contexts. I suggest that this approach to philosophy of science may provide better resources for nursing science.
Constructing a ‘plausible narrative of progress’ for nursing: a neopragmatist suggestion
Nursing Philosophy, 2009
Identity, difference, and the associated subject of cultural diversity pose challenges for nursing. As the demographics of the world change, demands are rising for nurses to provide sensitive, individualized care to people living in our ever-changing global community. Issues concerning gender, sexuality, disability, age, language, economic and occupational status, multiculturalism, and ethnicity are made more complex because many of these topics strike a personal chord for individual nurses. In order for nursing to provide appropriate care to the world's people and to meet future challenges, nursing must define itself in new ways. Kikuchi and Simmons have stated that the best way for nursing to approach this task is through the development of a ‘sound’ philosophy of nursing that will ‘accommodate diversity in nursing thought’. They contend that before we can establish a philosophy of nursing, nurses will have to agree upon the nature of reality, human beings, truth, and knowledge. This paper will suggest that neopragmatism, as described by Richard Rorty, is a way to assure diversity of thought in nursing. However, I will argue against the requirement for this philosophy to be ‘sound’ in the sense that Kikuchi and Simmons use this term. In place of their call for ‘truth and unity in nursing thought’. I will attempt to demonstrate how neopragmatic ideas relate to the construction of what Rorty called a unifying ‘plausible narrative of progress’. This change will allow nursing to abandon the dead end debate over epistemologies and instead focus on more important issues related to improving nursing practice.
Postmodernism and Knowledge Development in Nursing
International journal of psychosocial rehabilitation, 2020
ABSTRACT:Postmodernism, a movement against the intellectual foundation for the eternal and universal values. Because there is no single definition of it. The postmodern historical period represents the transition from the rigid logical positivism and science is entering a new vision, a vision that includes values, conditions, and human factors. Postmodernism protests as scientific arguments began in the early twentieth century. This paper aims to investigate the role of a postmodernism in the development of nursing knowledge, has been done.In this study to find relevant sources, library studies and review the books available Databases include (CINHAL), (Proquest), (science direct), (Ovid), (Magiran), (web of science), (pub med) and available book in the faculty of nursing library were searched by keywords (postmodernism) (knowledge development), (nursing knowledge) separately and in combination in the title, abstract and keywords. Finally, a total of 19 full-length articles and 14 books, which were related to the subject of the study and published from 1990 to 2018, were used as the references for this study to explore the role of this philosophical tradition in the development of the nursing knowledge.At the time of postmodernism, knowledge, science, and even the image of nursing, health, human health, and environment play a lot of truth itself has shown. Indeed, postmodernism for nursing truth without fences and wide, including horizontal of fusion means at: authority, ethos, ethics, communications, health care, environment, sustainability, aesthetics, structural interpretation, and cares. Many of the characteristics of postmodernism are congruent with nursing values and traditional practices. Routes of postmodernism in contemporary nursing knowledge and nursing theory as the theory of Newman, Parse, Rogers, Sartre, and Watson were seen. The transition matrix in the range of nursing science knowledge, concepts as the evolution of consciousness, higher self, open system, harmony, and communication with space - time, patterning and Holism revealed. Such thoughts staunch opposition to themes and templates prior to knowledge in nursing. Postmodernism focuses on epistemology and language, especially narratives as multiple truths, knowledge, uncertain and temporary, as the aim was to develop Nursing. Common themes of postmodernism and separate paragraph, including anti-fundamentalist, is a large discrepancy between theory and rejection of competent discourses. The main motto of postmodernism, which means “the center does not hold “we are in the center of nursing knowledge that does not be kept. We create, we can regenerate the same time build a new center, a new form of human experience and knowledge that will guide humanity towards greater emancipation and development, especially with respect to the art and science of nursing and the health care and the way of adaptation of knowledge and experience in a vast world of human health. Therefore, nurses have the knowledge to understand the impact of a change.