The metalanguage of menopause research

Nurse scholars often debate such technical issues as when to use quantitative or qualitative methods or some combination of methods. The proper focus of a discussion on nursing science should be the basic assumptions and values of various approaches to research. Unless we gain an awareness and appreciation of the human process of knowledge generation, our research questions will remain limited, and nursing practice will be shaped in ways that may be neither coherent nor consistent with our philosophies of nursing. Used to demonstrate this position, is the knowledge of menopause gleaned through a philosophical inquiry of the biomedical and sociocultural approaches to menopause research.