The Center for Nursing Philosophy Purpose
The profession of nursing has a social mandate to contribute to health. The American Nursing Association’s current definition of nursing is “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations” (2015, p. 1).
The academic discipline of nursing has a goal to generate knowledge that allows for nurses to achieve their professional mandate. Yet a defining issue for the nursing discipline since its inception has been the complexity of professional nursing practice, which precludes the notion that any single account of it can be adequate (Green, 2018; Holmes & Gastaldo, 2004, Bender & Holmes, 2019, Bender 2018).
Conceptualizing nursing knowledge
This basic fact raises distinct challenges in conceptualizing nursing knowledge. Nursing knowledge is an ambiguous term that can mean the knowing practice of nurses in hospitals and communities, nursing theories, or the results of empirical research studies, to name but a few conceptualizations.
This ambiguity and plurality challenge the notion of a “core” disciplinary knowledge, which as Sally Thorne has noted is “maddeningly elusive” (Thorne, 2014). It also raises critical questions about what constitutes the nursing discipline’s focus of inquiry and of methods for examining nursing phenomena.
It has led to a defining disciplinary paradox: the dualism of nursing science and art, which has become a focus for nursing philosophy.
The art-science dualism is only one way of expressing ongoing discourse and debate within the nursing discipline about its philosophical orientation and subsequent conceptualizations of knowledge, practice and scholarship.
There is a compelling need to create novel structures and modalities to overcome these seemingly entrenched divides. What is needed is a space where scholars can have open discussion about the concepts and meanings of terms such as nursing science, practice, theory and knowledge.
Engaging the global community
The Center for Nursing Philosophy hopes to be that space.
The CNP, in order to fulfill its mission, must engage with the national and international philosophy community.
We actively seek affiliations with known philosophy organizations (for example IPONS, the University of Alberta Unit for Philosophical Nursing Research) and invite scholars to UCI with the goal of fostering dialogue and philosophical programs of scholarship, including doctoral student training, conference organization, and in-person and virtual dissemination of ongoing and completed scholarship.
The CNP will also actively recruit faculty from departments of general philosophy both within UCI and across institutions to expand CNP’s scope of knowledge and expertise.
LATEST NEWS
2022-23 CNP Nursing Fellowship application period is open
The Center for Nursing Philosophy Fellowship program supports promising nursing PhD students or recent graduates (within 2 years of graduating with PhD and in an academic position) to pursue targeted scholarship in nursing philosophy. The [...]
UCI Podcast: At the intersection of nursing and philosophy
(L to R) Tyrus Miller, dean of UCI’s School of Humanities, and Mark Lazenby, dean of UCI’s Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing, before engaging in a conversation that details how the [...]
UPCOMING EVENTS
Call for Abstracts: Radical Philosophy Association Conference
Please note the following initiative from the Radical Philosophy Association, a CNP allied association. Abstracts for the Radical Philosophy Association 40th Anniversary Conference are due by July 15, 2022. The conference takes place at [...]
Event recap: Rhetorical Body Work in Health Care: Embodied Communication and Technological Mediation
By Miriam Bender Director, Center for Nursing Philosophy The Center for Nursing Philosophy was honored to sponsor a virtual presentation titled “Rhetorical Body Work in Health Care: Embodied Communication and Technological Mediation” on Thursday, [...]
Event recap: ‘Philosophical concerns in nursing around the globe: Critical issues from Brazil, Colombia, and Australia’
The Center for Nursing Philosophy was honored to co-sponsor a live-streaming virtual panel event with the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS) on Friday March 25, 2022. “Philosophical concerns in nursing around the globe: [...]
Event recap: Confusing moral judgment with ethical assessment in addressing racial conflict
The UC Irvine Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing Center for Nursing Philosophy was honored to sponsor a virtual presentation titled "Confusing moral judgment with ethical assessment in addressing racial conflict" featuring Frank [...]
Event recap: ‘Vulnerabilised Individuals and Opaque Institutions’
The UC Irvine Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing Center for Nursing Philosophy and the UCI Center for Knowledge, Technology, and Society were proud to co-host the Second Annual Joint Colloquium, featuring Havi Carel, professor [...]
25th International Nursing Philosophy Conference
Join the UCI Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing Center for Nursing Philosophy in association with the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS) for the 25th International Nursing Philosophy Conference. This year’s theme is “What has philosophy [...]
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