DEVELOPING NURSING KNOWLEDGE - PRACTICE ISSUES RAISED FROM 4 PHILOSOPHICAL-PERSPECTIVES

Analysis and comparison of emerging perspectives in nursing on some of the key issues of practice theory can create an enhanced vision of th e discipline. Four philosophy-of-science perspectives - realism, relat ivism, interpretivism, and humanism - are catalysts for fruitful insig hts about practice. However, together they generate more questions tha n they answer, both from each perspective and from the intersection of the assumptions of the four philosophies about the nature of knowledg e. The nature of knowledge for practice emerges from examining how the philosophical basis and the derived practice theories address such is sues as the phenomena of the discipline, environment, teleology, and n ursing theoretical frameworks. This is the time for good debate and co llaborative knowledge-building among scholars of various persuasions w ithin a milieu of ethos, pathos, and logic.