Typologies in nursing: a review of the literature

The generation and use of typologies is a familiar, but taken for granted, aspect of nursing discourse. In a previous article in Nurse Researcher, Colin Macduff analysed the construction, development and testing of a typology. In this paper, he presents a brief review of the use of typologies within nursing literature. Seven fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of typologies are addressed. The review process leads to two new typologies being presented. The first relates to the behaviour of typologies within nursing literature, while the second seeks to classify typologies that have been generated within nursing literature