title: The rhetoric of nursing theory.
abstract: Skeptics who question the validity and relevance of nursing theory in the nursing curriculum demonstrate the failure to persuade nurses of the importance of theory. Attempts to justify theory by forcing its use in contexts where it barely fits have contributed to the increasing disenchantment. But however misused and misunderstood, theory is nevertheless a lasting and essential part of nursing knowledge. Theory is the intellectual life of nursing. To further research, experiment, and insight in nursing as a discipline, theorizing must be encouraged--subject as all intellectual efforts must be--to honest critique and a healthy willingness to acknowledge success or failure.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois, Chicago College of Nursing, USA.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D004506:Education, Nursing; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing