The case for researching the history of community nursing practice.
Despite a flurry of interest in the 1980s, the adoption of a positivist, objective, scientific paradigm for nursing research has led to a rejection of the study of nursing history as a valid pursuit in recent years. In this article, it is argued that this is a precarious situation. By not examining the history of the profession, nursing -- and in particular community nursing -- undermines its efforts to validate itself within the wider health-care arena. Nursing must learn from the mistakes of the past, as well as the successes, but do so in a critical way that does not romanticize its history.
Whitehead
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University of Plymouth, Institute of Health Studies, Exeter.
D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000266:history*; D006663:Historiography; D049673:History, 20th Century; D015399:Nursing Research; D006113:United Kingdom