title: Qualitative approaches in nursing research. Historical research: the method.
abstract: The use of the historical research process in nursing is a valuable approach to expanding nursing's understanding of itself, and for interpreting the field and its contributions to others. It provides a scholarly means of connecting the field to the whole of human experience. Its liberating and liberalizing quality assists the profession further to define its identity through understanding of its heritage and to provide direction for its future. As a research method, it links nurse scholars with their colleagues in the humanities. As a scholarly pursuit within the professional field, historical inquiry, properly executed, has become essential to the refinement of nursing's understanding of itself.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
mesh_terms: D006663:Historiography; D006676:History of Nursing; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009937:Organizational Objectives