Philosophic analysis of a theory of clinical nursing

Knowledge in nursing requires development of theories that address both the science and art of the professional practice discipline. "A Theory of Clinical Nursing" was analyzed to explicate the epistemologic dimensions within an historic perspective. Epistemologic dimensions defined by the philosophy of science--approaches to theory development, sources of knowledge, and methodology--were characterized from two perspectives, scientific inquiry and historicism. The major perspectives in the scientific mode, namely, mechanism, empiricism, logical positivism, and logical empiricism, were analyzed along the three dimensions of theory development, sources of knowledge, and methodology. Trends in theoretical developments in nursing were related to the scientific and historic perspectives and to the epistemologic dimensions. Juxtaposing the diversity of knowledge required for nursing science and practice, and the values systems of the practitioners, revealed the inadequacy of the scientific model. Nursing knowledge explication required several modes of inquiry to articulate the scientific basis of the discipline and the art of delivery of the practice. The historicist approach framed scientific work with the prevailing World View. The Rubin theory was located within the matrix of approaches to inquiry and perspectives in nursing science. Labeled by the theorist as both a nursing research and a nursing care model, "A Theory of Clinical Nursing" represented a transition model of nursing, undergirded by the major conceptualizations and methodologies of field, psychoanalytic, and social behaviorist traditions, but implicitly coalescing the art with the science of nursing. The theory addressed core concepts of person, situation, and nursing care, as well as major process themes of change and interaction. Nursing theories of a more narrow range, such as maternal role attainment and maternal identity, nested within the theory, while subsequent theoretical clarifications and expansions have been constructed by students of the theorist. In the hierarchy of knowledge conceptualizations, Rubin's theory represents a disciplinary matrix: ordering theories, methods, and exemplars; giving direction to the development of theories of nursing that address empirical problems of the discipline; and cohering to the metaparadigm of nursing. Philosophic analysis of theories of nursing can yield an articulated, clearly depicted framework of concepts and their relationships from which new understandings may emerge.