1 Nursing Profession and philosophy

Question 1

Profession vs occupation

Answer 1

Profession is

• a defined and specialized knowledge base.
• Requires formal training.
• You have control over your training and practice.
• Usually takes a while to socialize into the profession
• Involves profession ethics and values

Occupation:

• a job/career for obtaining income
• Does not involve ethics or values
• Guided decision making with employer accountability

Question 2

What is a profession

Answer 2

Has a group of scholars to continually advance the knowledge of profession with the goal of improving practice

Question 3

What is a discipline

Answer 3

Body of knowledge used to understand a phenomena

Question 4

Donaldson and Crowley suggest the 3 disciplines of nursing are

Answer 4

Principles and laws that govern life processes, well-being, and optimum functioning of human beings—sick or well.

• Concern with the patterning of human behavior in interaction with the environment in critical life situations.
• Concern with the processes by which positive changes in health status are affected.” (p. 113)

Question 5

Is nursing a profession or a discipline

Answer 5

Both

Question 6

What is a focus statement

Answer 6

Professions/disciplines use focus statements to specify the area of study and define social relevance and values

Question 7

What is philosophy

Answer 7

A lens to look at the world and make meaning of it. Concerned with human life, nature, reality of being, and nature of knowledge. Provides an explanation for why thing are the way they are but does not solve specific problems

Question 8

What is science in terms of knowledge development

Answer 8

learning about causality (cause and effect). uses observation, verification, experience.

Question 9

What is the process of knowledge development using science

Answer 9

Research, observe phenomena, Avances knowledge

Question 10

What is the product of knowledge development when using science

Answer 10

• Knowledge
• explanation of phenomena
• explanation of knowledge (theories)

Question 11

What philosophical approaches to developing knowledge

Answer 11

Approaches include: intuition, introspection, and reasoning

Question 12

How did rationalists (received world view) develop knowledge

Answer 12

• Reason with hard data is better than experience as a knowledge source
• Believe there is a single truth and use deduction to (if not this then this)
• use mathematical procedures

Question 13

How did relativists (perceived) develop knowledge

Answer 13

• Derived knowledge from descriptions of lived-experiences, human interpretation and learned experiences.
• There is no single truth instead diff perspectives

Question 14

Name the rationalist worldviews in order

Answer 14

Empiricism
positivism
Post-positivism

Question 15

Name the relativist worldviews in order

Answer 15

Phenomenology
constructivism
postmodernism

Question 16

Describe the empiricism worldview

Answer 16

• Data must be observable and verifiable
• bias-free
• Understands parts to better understand whole
• Testing hypothesis and creating theories
• Math is used

Question 17

describe positivism

Answer 17

Like empiricism but believes that all authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge.
- The goal of science is to explain, predict, and control

Question 18

Describe Post-positivism

Answer 18

Still focuses on rigour and objective inquiry through quantitative methods but recognizes that contextual variables can affect real-life results

Question 19

Describe phenomenology

Answer 19

Study phenomena by understanding human experiences. Believe that human experiences are different but there are always similarities (essence)

Question 20

Describe constructivism

Answer 20

Believes that everyone’s reality is unique. Emphasizes subjectivity, multiple truths, trends, patterns, discovery, description, and understanding

Question 21

Describe post-modernism

Answer 21

• Dominant paradigm in the 20th century
• Like other relativist paradigms, it rejects the notion of a single truth
• Knowledge changes over time
• Branches into post-colonialism and feminism

Question 22

Epistemology vs ontology

Answer 22

Epistemology: nature of knowledge (how we know what we know)
Ontology: the nature of existence

Question 23

What is the epistemology of nursing

Answer 23

We know what we know from:

• Clinical knowledge (experience)
• Conceptual knowledge (knowledge from nursing theories and models)
• Empirical Knowledge (research in nursing)

Question 24

What are the fundamental ways of knowing according to Carper (1978)

Answer 24

• Empirics, Esthetic, Personal, Ethics

- Together they shape our nursing knowledge

Question 25

What is the 5th way of knowing

Answer 25

Emancipatory: connects socioeconomics to health.

- inequities and social justice in health care

Question 26

What are the 4 key nursing concepts

Answer 26

Person, environment, health, nursing