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NSQXXX10.1177/0894318415571617Nursing Science QuarterlyParse / Editorial

Editorial

Nursing Science or Is It the Science of Nursing?

Nursing Science Quarterly 2015, Vol. 28(2) 101­–102 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0894318415571617 nsq.sagepub.com

Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, RN; PhD; FAAN1 Keywords nursing science, science of nursing In conducting a cursory review of titles of articles in several nursing journals, it became clear that the constructs nursing science and science of nursing appeared many times and in different ways. Is there a difference in the constructs? What is the difference? The issue about the difference also arose recently at a meeting of international scholars in Europe when the idea of advancing nursing knowledge was discussed. Most participants at the conference believed that nursing science connotes and denotes the unique body of knowledge embedded in the extant nursing frameworks and theories that continue to be developed through research and creative conceptualization. In discussing the expression science of nursing, the precision in defining it was less clear. It definitely did not seem to have the same meaning as nursing science. Many participants believed that the construct science of nursing was related to research that focused on those projects funded by government or other agencies concerned with attributes and characteristics of disease-related situations in populations and with issues surrounding healthcare systems. Broome (2014) seemed to agree when she wrote about the nursing research “funding dilemma.” She said in her editorial, “Revisioning the Science of Nursing,” that nurse scientists study health problems and generate “knowledge, interventions, and measurement models for important health issues, such as transitions of care, caregiving stress and stress management, improving quality of life in chronic illness, pain assessment and management, and normalization in families of individuals with chronic illness” (p. 160). The editorial was informative but the “revisioning” seemed to be about sources and resources for funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and other sources, not about nursing science as understood by many scholars. Research funded by NIH and NINR in the name of the science of nursing is rarely conceptualized within a nursing framework or theory but, rather, focuses on phenomena related to population―interventional studies that cross disciplinary lines. These studies are often conceptualized in theories of other disciplines, and the only reference to nursing is that a nurse is principal or co-investigator. How does this advance nursing science? Other scholars follow the theories

of their disciplines to advance knowledge about their relevant phenomena. Where is nursing in this picture? Are nurse scholars and PhD students only concerned with getting funds and conducting research with teams that focus on populations, health problems, measurement issues, and others regardless of the guiding frameworks? How are doctoral students educated to conduct research to advance disciplinespecific knowledge? What specific courses in doctoral programs in nursing guide students to conduct research on disciplinary phenomena? Several participants attending the aforementioned meeting of scholars reported that in their PhD programs in the United States the teacher in the first course shares a list of NINR and NIH priorities. Students are expected to select their research phenomena from the NINR and NIH priorities and guidelines and to conduct their doctoral research consistent with these priorities and guidelines. Is the tail wagging the dog? What is more concerning is that the reported curricula of PhD programs in the United States show that few contain a course specific to nursing frameworks and theories—the theoretical and research foundation courses are crowded with theories from other disciplines, for example, theories from business, psychology, and sociology. There is little effort by most doctoral faculty to encourage students to develop research projects using extant nursing theories. In fact, often students are discouraged from doing so; the main focus is obtaining government funding and preparing to ultimately achieve an RO1. Is this the best way to advance nursing knowledge? Is funding all that is important? Where is the incentive to have doctoral students begin their scholarly work building on ideas that arise from their own curiosity and interest? Where are the new innovative ideas arising from the insights cocreated in the engagement of faculty scholars with budding scholars? If nurse PhD graduates are to be leaders in nursing knowledge development, 1

Loyola University Chicago, Pittsburgh, PA

Editor: Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, RN, PhD, FAAN, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Chicago, 320 Fort Duquesne Blvd. #25H, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. Email: [email protected]

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Nursing Science Quarterly 28(2)

then there must be some concerted educational effort to instruct doctoral students in nursing science, and that means the extant frameworks and theories of the discipline.

Funding

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Reference

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this editorial.

Broome, M. E. (2014). Revisioning the science of nursing. Nursing Outlook, 62, 159-161.

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this editorial.

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Nursing science or is it the science of nursing?

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