Premium
Open‐mindedness: a virtue for professional practice
Author(s) -
Sellman Derek
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
nursing philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.367
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1466-769X
pISSN - 1466-7681
DOI - 10.1046/j.1466-769x.2003.00113.x
Subject(s) - virtue , argument (complex analysis) , epistemology , harm , value (mathematics) , complement (music) , psychology , sociology , philosophy , medicine , social psychology , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , machine learning , complementation , gene , phenotype
This paper introduces the notion of open‐mindedness before proceeding to outline its value to the practical activity of nursing. An argument is constructed to point to the desirability of the development of a virtue of open‐mindedness in nurses in order to complement evidence‐based practice. Attention is drawn to two failures of open‐mindedness (the vices of closed‐mindedness and credulousness), which have the potential both to restrict autonomous practice and to cause harm.