Premium
The Nature of Knowledge and Theory in Nursing
Author(s) -
Visintainer Madelon A.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
image: the journal of nursing scholarship
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1547-5069
pISSN - 0743-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1986.tb00539.x
Subject(s) - nursing theory , nursing practice , focus (optics) , nursing research , engineering ethics , discipline , sociology , epistemology , nursing , psychology , medicine , medline , social science , political science , philosophy , engineering , physics , optics , law
The formulation of nursing as a discipline is under way. Work on theory development, concept clarification and the development of a knowledge base is spurred by the creation of new doctoral programs and the emphasis on nursing research. As nursing establishes itself as an inventor of theory, the contrasts and similarities between its existence as both a practice profession and academic discipline come into sharp focus. As nursing strives to understand itself both as a user‐applier and discoverer‐inventor of knowledge and theory, it provides a model for other practice professions and academic disciplines to explore such questions as, What is the nature of theory in practice? What is the role of application in the formulation of theory? This paper examines the characteristics of theoretical constructs as they apply to the practice of nursing, the use of theory in that practice and the limitations of theory in application.