Nursing and the philosophy of science

Throughout its history, nursing has struggled with definitional issues. Embedded firmly in tradition mothering roles according to McCloskey and Grace (1985), nursing has found it difficult to make transitions into the professional and scientific realms. The professional and scientific status of nursing may not be as gloomy as McCloskey and Grace put it. Leddy and Pepper (1989) for instance claim that nursing has, since the 1960s, dramatically evolved into a scientific discipline. The purpose of this paper is to: 1. redefine science in order to establish the basis of the debate on nursing as a science; 2. outline at least one philosophical position in science and examine how nursing might benefit from it; 3. assess or evaluate, in the light of the above points the possible usefulness of nursing science especially the use of paradigm concepts in nursing; 4. finally question whether nursing wants to work towards paradigm status. In a small way this paper contributes to the debate on the nature of science as applied to nursing. It reflects on the progress being made through nursing models' paradigm concepts. The conclusion suggests that the concept of paradigm as used in nursing is in keeping with Kuhn's and therefore can be adopted as a potentially useful framework.