Contributor: Jacqueline Fawcett
Since the nursology.net website was launched in September 2018, I have received numerous queries about who can be considered a nursologist.
My answer has always been the same—ALL of us are nursologists. This encompasses anyone who now is called or thinks about self as a nurse or a student of nursing.
This means that I and others are now using the term, nursologist, to refer to being members of the discipline of nursology.
There is no hierarchy of nursologists. For example, some queries I have received suggest that only those of us who hold doctoral degrees are (or can be) nursologists. This is not my view of who is a nursologist. Again, all of us are nursologists.
I recommend that each reader of this blog begin to refer to self as a nursologist. If or when anyone asks what a nursologist is, you can reply that you are a member of the discipline of nursology, which used to be called nursing. This designation places emphasis on the -ology, which tells us and others that we base all our activities on our discipline-specific knowledge.
A considerable amount of nursology discipline-specific is formalized as explicit various versions of our metaparadigm as well as nursology philosophies, conceptual models, theories and the ways in which nursology concepts are measured or observed. A portion of our knowledge is available in summary form on the nursology.net website (https://nursology.net/nurse-theories/ and https://nursology.net/nursing-philosophy/ and https://nursology.net/patterns-of-knowing-in-nursing/
The first time I heard and saw the word, nursologist, was the label for the practice positions held by Loretta Zderad and Josephine Paterson who worked as nursologists at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Northport, New York (Paterson, 1978; Zderad, 1978.) They developed Humanistic Nursing Theory as a way of thinking about and practicing nursology – see https://nursology.net/nurse-theories/humanistic-nursing/
More recently, the blog, “It’s Time We Raised Nursologists!,” was posted on nursology.net—see https://nursology.net/2021/05/04/its-time-we-raise-nursologists/ In their blog, Sharon Stout-Shaffer and Christina Nyirati described the curriculum Dr. Nyirati developed and that they taught at Heritage University. The curriculum is made up of separate courses about each of Carper’s Fundamental Patterns of Nursing (empirics, aesthetics, ethics, personal knowing) and Chinn and Kramer’s emancipatory knowing in nursing-see https://nursology.net/patterns-of-knowing-in-nursing/ The blog includes a video of the presentation Drs. Stout-Shaffer and Nyirati at the Virtual Nursing Theory Week conference in 2021. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmjlAw53BvQ&t=175s.
The Heritage University undergraduate nursing curriculum is arguably, THE way to raise nursologists, such that everyone understands and learns to apply nursology discipline-specific knowledge. These students fully understand that they and all other members of our discipline are, indeed, nursologists.
References
Paterson, J. G. (1978). The tortuous way toward nursing theory. In Theory development: What, why, how (pp. 49-65). National League for Nursing, Pub. No. 15-1708.
Zderad, L. T. (978). From here-and-now to Theory: Reflections on “how.” In Theory development: What, why, how (pp. 35-48). National League for Nursing, Pub. No. 15-1708.
About Dr. Jacqueline Fawcett
Facilitator, Nursology.net management team
ORCID: 0000-0002-1091-8873
Professor, Department of Nursing, University of Massachusetts Boston
Teaches undergraduate nursing research courses emphasizing conceptual-theoretical-empirical structures
Teaches a PhD program nursing course addressing contemporary disciplinary knowledge
Provides consultation about use of nursing conceptual models
Author, with Susan DeSanto-Madeya, of the 3rd edition of Contemporary Nursing Knowledge
Author or co-author of numerous Essays in Nursing Science, published in Nursing Science Quarterly since 2012.
Author, with Gail Russell, of the Conceptual Model of Nursing and Health Policy
Author, with Carol Hall Ellenbecker, of the Conceptual Model of Nursing and Population Health
Author of the Conceptual Model for Equity and Quality: Population Health and Health Policy.
Thank you Dr. Fawcett for clarifying the definition of a Nursologist. I am eager to add Nursologist to my professional signature and to forward your blog to colleagues.
Dear Dr. Fawcett, hi Jacqui
Thanks for these wise words. Despite until now I was reluctant to name me nursologist, I know forwarded your post to all my former doctoral students, and recommended to become a Nursologist ;-).
Maria Müller Staub (PhD, EdN, MNS, FNI, FEANS, RN)
Nursologist
Thank you Dr. Fawcett for espousing the importance of basing our practice on our nursing specific knowledge as nursologists. I have been impressed by the ability of many nurses to practice, expressing a thoughtful rationale grounded in nursing knowledge. While many nursing theories offer a stable base of support, we need to be open to critique and evolution of our knowledge.
Faith and Maria, Thank you very much for your comments. I am very encouraged by your willingness to refer to all of us as nursologists. I will be interested in learning the extent to which your colleagues adopt nursologist.
Karen, Thank you for your comment. I agree with you completely that all of us nursologists must be open to expanding our knowledge and critique of our knowledge all the time.
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