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Educare

Educare

OCTUBRE 2006 N° 8 Volumen 4

Is nursing a science in a state of revolution? An analysis from catharsis

Section: LEARNING TO TEACH

Authors

1Manuel Gago Fornells, 2Purificación González Villanueva

Position

1Alumno del Título Superior de Enfermería.2Profesora de la Universidad Europea de Madrid.

Contact email: purificacion.gonzalez@uem.es

Abstract

The Philosophy of Nature and Science is a central subject included in any philosophy programme. This subject is part of the Combined Plan of the “Universidad Europea de Madrid” in the degree of Social Studies and the Higher Degree of Nursing, being structured into two modules. Module I attempts, on one hand, to study the perceptions people have had about nature throughout the history of Western thinking, going from Aristotle to the development of the theory of relativity and quantum physics. Social and cultural factors that led to the maintenance of a certain idea on what a human being and nature were at a certain historical moment are analysed. On the other hand, we attempt to examine the way of understanding and manipulating nature, which we have named “science”, by exploring the scientific perception of the world in modern times, the characteristics of scientific thinking, the social and cultural factors that determine such thinking, orienting the philosophy of nature and science towards a field of knowledge and generation of the nursing discipline, and study of epistemology and conceptual development.

In Module II, we approach care as an object of knowledge in nursing, as a discipline, in the context of human sciences. In this module, students must perform a project as evaluation method. In order to do this project, a series of readings and a group of questions relating to the different reading materials are proposed. The student chooses among the readings and the questions or questions upon which he or she will base the presentation. One of the most important aspects is the discursive development performed by the student, the way in which he or she presents his or her argumentations regarding the different concepts in relation to the authors.
What is essential is not to answer the questions, but the argumentation line used.

We present the work of one of our students, which we believe meets all the criteria required by the subject.

Keywords:

epistemology; paradigm; nursing disciplinecare

Versión en Español

Título:

¿Es la enfermería una ciencia en revolución? Un análisis desde la catarsis