Essay On Nursing Discipline

Running Head: NURSING, A DISCIPLINE?

Is Nursing a Discipline?

Beverley Rader Lugo

University of Colorado, Denver

The purpose of this paper is to argue that nursing is a unique discipline on its own and not dependent on the discipline of medicine for its identity. While there is much discussion about nursing as a profession and nursing as a practice in modern nursing literature and education, nursing as a discipline is less often discussed. In fact, the word discipline does not appear in one of the most commonly cited publications used to identify the essential purpose and role of nursing. This publication of the American Nursing Association, Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice (2010), defines nursing

All disciplines have evolved out of a distinct perspective which ultimately determines which concepts are of interest, in what context they should be viewed, what questions should be raised, what methods are to be used, and what evidence or proof is required (1991).

One must consider then what is the distinct perspective and goal of the nursing discipline, and what is the discipline’s reason for being? The nursing perspective, according to theorists Donaldson and Crowley (1978), offers a distinct way of viewing all phenomena and defines the nature and limits of inquiry. According to Parsee (1999) the goal of the nursing discipline is to expand knowledge about human experience through conceptualization and

Nursing: scope and standards of practice, 2nd ed. Silver Springs, MD: Nursebooks.org.

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