There are those who seem to accept the idea of ‘nursing science’ as unproblematic, and
the term appears in the title of many university departments, particularly in the USA and
in continental Europe, and it appears often in the international nursing literature. As a
consequence one might be forgiven for thinking that the idea that nursing is a science,
or that there is such a thing as nursing science, has gained a universal acceptance but
this is far from the case. There remain many who question the status of nursing as a
science and for whom the term ‘nursing science’ fails to capture the essence of the
activity called nursing. In Britain in particular there is scepticism about the possibility
of nursing as a science.
The recent emphasis on ‘research based practice’ in medicine has led to a similar move
in nursing (and elsewhere) and the idea of ‘evidence based practice’ is now reflected in
nursing curricula. While the idea of ‘evidence’ rather than ‘research’ as a basis for
nursing practice has gained a foothold in the collective imagination of nurses this is at
the cost of definitional imprecision. It enables both those who consider nursing as a
science and those who do not the possibility of claiming their own versions of what
counts as legitimate evidence. I will return to this point in Chapter 5 but for now it is
useful merely to note that those who consider nursing a science tend to take the idea of
evidence to mean evidence gained from (positivist) science.
Edwards points out “The claim that nursing is a science is a ‘class inclusion’ claim”
(Edwards 2001 p. 137). This is to say that before a claim that nursing is a science can be
evaluated it is necessary for the characteristics of science to be articulated. However
defining science turns out be a task not all that much simpler than the task of defining
nursing; there remain unresolved debates within philosophy of science about the true
nature of science. Nevertheless, and for the purposes of this account, the view that
science is “a descriptive enterprise” (ibid p. 138) will be accepted as this corresponds
with the generally accepted understanding of what science is. Science then sets out to
describe phenomena and this is consistent with science as it appears in the UK school
curriculum. As an example, one key stage 3 science textbook (Hudson 1998) is divided
into three sections entitled: i) life processes and living things; ii) materials and their
properties; and iii) physical properties. These three sections correspond with biology,
chemistry, and physics respectively (often collectively known as the natural sciences)
and the book does indeed attempt to describe the natural world. On this account the
claim that nursing is a science is set to fail as nursing is not primarily concerned with
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