Philosophy of nursing: future directions

At a time when psychiatric nurses in Australia face the changes brought about by the transfer of nursing education to the universities, it is timely to reconsider the knowledge base of the profession, not from the perspective of any one theoretical position, but by reflecting on a fundamental division in the way nursing is thought about. Many nurse theorists argue for a shift away from conceptions of nursing based on medicine and science. The alternative, idealism, brings with it a new set of problems, particularly the tendency to react against the perceived dominance of the medical profession instead of positing a philosophy of nursing that reflects a more considered response. The argument developed here begins by aligning medicine and related conceptions of nursing with materialism. This leads to a consideration of the relevance of philosophical positions on the nature of body and mind, that is then linked to the assumptions of medicine and nurse theorists. Introduction of the concepts of holism and interactionist dualism follows. The implications of these concepts for psychiatric nursing are drawn out by using conceptions of the objective and rational. Finally, it is argued that interactionist dualism enables psychiatric nurses to be sensitive to the experiences of patients while still acknowledging the importance of objective knowledge.