title: Judgment: the nurse's key to knowledge.
abstract: Recently, nursing has turned more of its attention to judgment and has given it a high priority for study. A significant part of that study asks: What is judgment? How is it made? Why is it important? The ancient Greeks discovered reason and then created enduring art that demonstrates it. Three nurses are excerpted from this literature to evoke and explain how judgment is made. Euryclea, Cilissa, and Medea's nurse also illustrate the personal commitment in judgment. Human beings depend on the nurse's judgment. They depend on the nurse as knower. Nurses are obliged to move from doubt and opinion towards knowledge and certitude. Judgment is the nurse's key to that knowledge.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Doona
mesh_terms: D004324:Drama / Q000266:history; D000076145:Greece, Ancient; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000266:history; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history