An archaeology of caring knowledge.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Philosophy of Science
• Epistemology

Background:

• Nursing literature reveals persistent challenges in defining the concept of caring.
• Despite numerous attempts over 20 years, a precise clarification of nursing care remains elusive.
• The complexity and elusive nature of caring have been consistently noted by researchers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To diagnose the reasons behind the persistent elusiveness of defining caring in nursing.
• To explain why attempts to clarify caring are inherently impossible given current epistemological frameworks.
• To critique the prevailing understanding of knowledge acquisition in nursing.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of presuppositions regarding the nature of knowledge in nursing literature.
• Comparison of current nursing knowledge paradigms with Foucault's analysis of 16th-century knowledge.
• Examination of how knowledge about caring is aggregated, associated, and described holistically.

Main Results:

• The study identifies outdated presuppositions about knowledge that hinder the definition of caring.
• The prevailing method of understanding caring knowledge is approximately 350 years obsolete.
• Nursing's knowledge of caring is characterized as 'plethoric yet absolutely poverty-stricken,' echoing Foucault's critique.

Conclusions:

• The current approach to defining nursing care is fundamentally flawed due to an anachronistic understanding of knowledge.
• Achieving a clear, holistic definition of caring is impossible with the existing epistemological framework.
• Nursing must re-evaluate its foundational assumptions about knowledge to advance the understanding of caring.