Research in the Philosophy of Nursing
Nursing Knowledge: Science, Practice, and Philosophy
This book explores the philosophical questions that underlie nursing research. Follow this link for a detailed description, including a table of contents and some representative passages.
Nursing, Science and Philosophy
A blog about philosophical issues in nursing research.
New Projects
Selected Essays
Abstracts and links to essays about the philosophy of nursing research.
New Projects
A number of projects have been generated by writing Nursing Knowledge. First, I am working on an essay that defends the importance of mechanistic (interlevel) models in nursing research. Nurse scholars have often affirmed a commitment to holism. Among the meanings of this idea is the demand that a nurse respond to the whole patient as a person, not simply treat the disease or dysfunction. Mechanistic models are regarded as reductionist, and thus in conflict with a fundamental value of nursing. In "Secret Springs and Principles: Mechanism and Holism in Nursing Research," I argue that mechanistic model building is not only consistent with the holism implicit in nursing practice, it is required by it.
A second project explores the conception of autonomy implict in nursing practice and nursing research. Nurses have long regarded themselves as patient advocates, and they were early opponents of medical paternalism. However, the conception of autonomy embedded in nursing?s theoretical and research literature is somewhat different than that deployed in medical ethics. Research by nurses highlights the value of restoring the patient's capacities. Nursing aims to help the patient recover the physical and mental capacity to act on their choices. Nursing authors have been less concerned with the patient?s freedom from coercion and more concerned with how much the patient is free to do. In this essay, I explore the parallel between the conceptions of patient action in nursing and medicine and the distinction between "negative freedom" and "positive freedom" that figures in political philosophy. While in medical ethics autonomy expresses the value of unconstrained choice, in nursing the value of autonomy includes the physical and social conditions that make choices available.
Selected Essays
Nursing Science
In Philosophy of Medicine, Fred Gifford (ed.), Amsterdam: Elsevier, forthcoming. In the series Handbook of Philosophy of Science, D.M. Gabbay, J. Woods, and P. Thagard (series editors)
This essay is a synopsis of philosophical questions that arise out of nursing research. Does nursing science need a distinct kind of theory or a characteristic methodology? If it is to be an independent domain of research, does it need a unique object of study? What is the relationship between nursing theory and nursing practice? Developments in the philosophy of science have influenced nurse scientists? conceptions of their discipline, its goals, and its methodology. This essay examines both the ways in which philosophical views have influenced nursing science, and ways in which reflection on nursing research might contribute to the philosophy of science.
Rethinking Concept Analysis
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65 (3): 684-691 (2009)
Concept analysis has a mixed reputation in nursing scholarship. Since Walker and Avant introduced it in 1983, textbooks have stated that concept analysis is necessary for theory development. Yet, many commentators have found concept analysis troublesome. Choice of defining attributes often seems arbitrary, and most concept analyses contribute little to theoretical development. This essay identifies the sources of that trouble. Writers have been inconsistent in their commitment to the contextual character of concepts. A renewed commitment to contextualism shows how concept analyses can be more firmly grounded. The essay concludes by dividing concept analyses into "theoretical" and "colloquial" types.
penultimate draft pdf
A New Foundation for Methodological Triangualtion
with Sandra Dunbar and Margret Moloney, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 34 (3): 269-275 (2002)
The debate over methodological triangulation has been between those who hold that qualitative and quantitative methods must remain separate (the building block view) and those who hold that they may be used together in a single study (the blending view). The essay analyzes the presuppositions of the debate, showing that it presupposes view of theory structure that is philosphically untenable. With a better view of theory in place, the use of different methods to confirm (or disconfirm) a single theory is seen to be unproblematic.
penultimate draft pdf
Methodological Triangulation in Nursing Research
with Margret Moloney and Sandra Dunbar, Philosophy of Social Science, 31 (1): 40-59 (2001).
Methodological triangulation is the use of more than one method to investigate a phenomenon. Nurse researchers investigate health phenomena using methods drawn from the natural and social sciences. The methodological debate concerns the possibility of confirming a single theory with different kinds of method. The nursing debate parallels the philosophical debate about how the natural and social sciences are related. This essay critiques the presuppositions of the nursing debate and suggests alternatives. The consequence is a view of triangulation that permits different methods to confirm a single theory. The essay then explores the consequences for the philosophy of social science.
