Contemplating the fit and utility of nursing theory and nursing scholarship informed by the social sciences and humanities.
In this article, authors contend that a lack of familiarity with philosophical thinking undermines the ability of students and subsequently practicing nurses to theorize for themselves. Engagement with philosophical ideas propels nurses well beyond the unthinking "application" of extant theory, to theorizing, that is, using theoretical formulations to engage with the significant phenomena we encounter in the world of human health. The authors present a framework to guide philosophical interrogation of knowledge, with a focus on the utility of both disciplinary knowledge and knowledge from the social sciences and humanities.
School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. McIntyre@uvic.ca
Marjorie
M
McIntyre
Carol
C
McDonald
D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006809:Humanities; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D012942:Social Sciences; D013338:Students, Nursing