As Rorty stated, “reality (is) shaped by the discourse from within” (Isaacs, Ploeg, & Tompkins, 2009, p. 82); nursing is steeped heavily in the biological sciences, but the biological sciences are too shaped by that which is within, up to and including through the practitioner”s moral and philosophical approaches to life. There are those who argue that to neglect philosophical inquiry into nursing treatment practices is to place the discipline at risk (Pesut & Johnson, 2007), an accurate, if slightly overdramatic fact; without questioning and inquiry, in all areas, a discipline may not advance.
I believe that nursing, like all of the practice disciplines, should work to incorporate more than just the biological sciences, relying on past knowledge, insight, intuition, and focusing on other aspects of patient care as well. While I do not advocate a wholly holistic approach, I believe that the spiritual side of things should be left out of the medical profession, studies have shown that depressed or down patients are less likely to recover as quickly, making a somewhat holistic approach the best course of action, one that is best described by the Nightingale philosophy, though this does not encompass it fully (Porter, 2001).
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The sources of information that are the most significant to me are those that provide hard science information, backed up by legitimate facts, and the types of research that are most applicable to the nursing practice are those that work to uphold the “adherence to scientism” (Porter, 2001). Philosophy and science are equally important to all practice disciplines. Science provides the hard facts by which to formulate an opinion and philosophy dictates the actions that are taken in regard to those facts, working to legitimize the nursing profession through the application of knowledge with wisdom.
Nursing should always be concerned with working with the information on the patient in order to make the decision that is best for the patient, not easiest for the practitioner, and it is for this reason that the clinician-scientist role will never be embraced (Mackay, 2009).
