Nursing as an emerging academic discipline

During the past decade nurse theorists and educationalists have been attempting to establish nursing as an academic discipline. Nurse education is rapidly moving away from monotechnic colleges of nursing into institutes of higher education. This paper presents a discussion of some of the issues associated with the emergence of nursing as an academic discipline. The definition of a discipline is ambiguous and, although nursing may be said to exhibit some of the desired elements required to be classified as a discipline, it is apparent that many of these elements have not been developed sufficiently. Many attempts have been made to classify nursing as 'art' or 'science' or a combination of the two. Nursing epistemologists, educationalists and practitioners appear unable to determine the essence and uniqueness of nursing in order to inform practice, which is still heavily weighted toward the established academic disciplines. If nursing is to survive in the echelons of higher education and gain respect as an emerging academic discipline, these recurring arguments need to be resolved.