Seeking the both/and of a nursing research proposal

Much of contemporary nursing scholarship challenges us to critique the assumptions that underlie the processes of inquiry as well as the knowledge that we claim as our results. This article examines the layers of assumptions that circumscribe an ethnographic study of the relationships among health, environment, policy, and culture in one Hispanic community. The author seeks to analyze these assumptions as sources of meaning and interpretation by illuminating discourses contained within the text of the proposal. This discourse analysis provides perspectives from which to consider questions of knowledge, power, and relationships in nursing inquiry.