Nursing research and the human sciences

Nursing has long been associated with the natural sciences. However, more recently some nurses have begun to identify it as a human science. The epistemological and ontological bases then shift, with clear implications for the research approaches that are regarded as the most useful. This column offers a discussion of the worldviews represented in contemporary nursing knowledge, focusing particularly on the newer paradigm that includes the view of nursing as a human science, and the place of qualitative and quantitative research. Neither the human sciences nor the natural sciences are seen as providing a sufficient base for all nursing knowledge. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are viewed as potentially useful strategies given the nature of the phenomenon to be explored. Parallels to current discussions of worldviews and research methods in transpersonal psychology are identified.