Theorization and diagnosis in Nursing: the evolution of Nursing thought

Abstract

The nursing discipline is currently undergoing

significant changes. However, it is crucial for nurses

to ask themselves whether this transformation is

real. Are they really moving toward the discipline’s

stated objectives, or are they in a self-imposed pause

as they are trying to assimilate their capacities

and wondering who they are and where they are

going? This dilemma places nursing at the cusp

of transcending its current limits. It is a dynamic

and complex situation—a process of disciplinary

transition, revalidation, and transformation that

goes hand in hand with the current reorientation of

scientific research toward the transcendence of care.

To this aim, nursing faces a double task: not only to

produce scientific literature, but also to consume it.

The production and amassing of nursing theories

and articles are of no use unless they lead nurses

to a practical outcome in which they consume

the literature that they produce. Failing this, the

discipline faces both the flight of knowledge and

a backlog in the updating of said knowledge. The

theory of knowledge in the field of care has evolved

in such a way that has irreversibly revolutionized

the discipline of nursing in terms of both training

and practice. Therefore, it has become essential

for nurses to utilize all resources at their disposal,

to appreciate contemporary efforts to produce

scientific nursing research, and to recognize that

all research—regardless of its paradigm—provides

knowledge and strengthens the development of

nursing as a discipline and as a science.