Transforming health care: does nursing theory have anything to offer?

The notions of power, empowerment and autonomy have received little attention in modern nursing theory yet they lie at the very heart of primary health care. This paper explores the ways in which critical social theory, and in particular Habermas's knowledge-constitutive interests, might inform nursing theory. It then goes on to argue that incorporating the principles of primary health care in nursing theory requires a radical reconceptualisation of key concepts.