Paradigms in Nursing: Looking back and moving forward
Nurses’ philosophical outlook is generally intertwined with their practice. The outlook may incorporate paradigms that reflect nurses’ core values and pose remarkable influence over their nursing practice, be it in the clinical setting, education, or research.
Looking back, several nursing scientists posited that nursing is experiencing a paradigm insurgency. Two major worldviews, empiricism and interpretive, are constantly competing, and the debate continues. Towards the end of the 20th century, the classical articles of Newman et al. (1991), Cody (1995), Monti and Tingen (1999) are used as an example here for several reasons. Initially, these articles can be best to represent, compare and contrast, and articulate the paradigms, especially as it concern nursing.
On the one hand, the empiricism paradigm, also known as quantitative methodology, focuses on quantifying a phenomenon while applying control, manipulation, and objectivity. Aside from the term empiricism as used by Monti and Tingen (1999), Cody (1995) refer to it as a totality, and as particulate-deterministic by Newman and colleagues (1991). On the other hand, the interpretive paradigm, which is also known as qualitative methodology, focuses on capturing individual experiences and feelings, to name a few. Newman et al. (1991) refer to this paradigm as unitary-transformative, and simultaneity by Cody (1995).
Moving forward, because of the nature of nursing as an art and science (Jasmine, 2009; Vega & Hayes, 2019) both paradigms are crucial in advancing nursing in general. Subscribing to these two paradigms complements each other, as seen in the mixed-methods design. This is not to say that mixed-methods should be used; instead, depending on one’s research objectives and question, the researcher should use one that best suits the study. As nurses, we should embrace both paradigms as they necessitate the development of nursing overall. After all, these paradigms are needed to advance nursing in Kazakhstan. There has been much written literature on how these paradigms advance nursing (Ellenbecker & Edward, 2016; Tierney, 2020). The question now is, how do you proceed?
Authors
Paolo Colet, PhD, MAN, RN, RM
Assistant Professor, Nazarbayev University, School of Medicine
Corresponding Author: Paolo Colet, paolo.colet@nu.edu.kz
Joseph Almazan, DNSc, MPA, MAN, RN
Assistant Professor, Nazarbayev University, School of Medicine
Anargul Kuntuganova, MBA
Instructor, Nazarbayev University, School of Medicine
Alma Syzdykova, MD, MBA, MSc
Director of Science and Education Department at the University Medical Center
Aurelija Blaževičienė, PhD, RN
Professor, Lithuanian University of Health Science, faculty of Nursing, Lithuania
References
Cody, W. K. (1995). About all those paradigms: many in the universe, two in nursing. Nursing Science Quarterly, 8(4), 144-147.
Ellenbecker, C. H., & Edward, J. (2016). Conducting Nursing Research to Advance and Inform Health Policy. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 17(4), 208–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527154417700634
Jasmine T. (2009). Art, science, or both? Keeping the care in nursing. The Nursing Clinics of North America, 44(4), 415–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2009.07.003
Monti, E. J., & Tingen, M. S. (1999). Multiple Paradigms of Nursing Science. Advances in Nursing Science, 21(4), 64-80.
Newman, M. A., Sime, A. M., & Corcoran-Perry, S. A. (1991). The focus of the discipline of nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 14(1), 1-6.
Shaw, J., Gagnon, M., Carson, A., Gastaldo, D., Gladstone, B., Webster, F., & Eakin, J. (2022). Advancing the Impact of Critical Qualitative Research on Policy, Practice, and Science. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, 16094069221076929.
Tierney, A.J.(2020).Shifting the paradigm. Nursing Standard, 35(10), 27-30.doi:10.7748/ns.35.10.27.s26.
Vega, H., & Hayes, K. (2019). Blending the art and science of nursing. Nursing2020, 49(9), 62-63.
