On September 18th, 2018, Nursology.net was officially unveiled! For several weeks before, the development team worked on pullling together the structure of the site, and filling in the initial content for all of the components – the theories and models, exemplars, resources, history, theory-related events, forms for contributions to the site, and ideas for the first few blogs! In the first official blog on September 18th, I wrote:
Creating Nursology.net has been an amazing experience! Each of us who have developed the site and its content have vested interests, as nurse scholars, in seeing this project come to fruition. But I am not sure if any of us could envision the reality until now. As one of the developers, and as someone who is known to have a certain degree of expertise in nursing knowledge development, being a witness to the unfolding reality of this site has been a remarkable awakening. Yes, I already had a degree of familiarity with every element that we have developed so far. But as I began to see all the pieces start to appear all together, in a collection that represents the whole, I have been in awe of the enormity, the significance and the power of nursing ideas, how these ideas shape nursing actions, and how nursing actions shape our ideas.
At the time of that initial post, only twenty theories and models appeared in the gallery! Today we have over 80 theories and models! During the first month after the site was announced far and wide, we had over five thousand views (an average of about 1.6 views per visitor). We reached a high number of over 80 thousand views in September 2024. We now consistently have an average number of views per day of between 1 and 2 thousand.
To say that Nursology.net has been a success in terms of numbers may be somewhat of an understatement! As a development team we are of course gratified by these numbers. But our real joy is knowing that the knowledge of our discipline is alive and well, and that it is recognized as essential for the practice of our discipline, and for the future development of our discipline. On this anniversary, I invite you to reflect on the principles and assumptions that guide the ongoing development of this site:
https://nursology.net/about/
- Nursology is a distinct discipline that is vital to the health and wellbeing of people worldwide, our families, communities and nations.
- Nursology is multi-dimensional, bringing together a variety of theoretic and philosophic perspectives, each of which makes a significant contribution to the distinct nature of the discipline as a whole.
- Nursology is an autonomous discipline based on values and ideals that bring a unique and necessary dimension to healthcare..
- Nursology intersects with other healthcare disciplines, draws on knowledge from other disciplines, and functions in cooperation and collaboration with other disciplines, but remains distinct and autonomous because of particular perspectives arising from the experience of caring for those who are sick or injured, and from the experience of promoting health and wellbeing for individuals, families, communities and the environments in which they reside.
Thank you for visiting Nursology.net today! We hope you are as delighted with what you find here as we have been in the process of presenting it to you!
Thank you Dr. Chinn and the amazing who created Nursology.net., a site that beautifully brings together the depth and breadth of our discipline, turning theory into an ongoing living dialogue. Kindest thanks, Arlene de la Rocha, PhD, RN (Canada)
Thank you for your kind words! We are so gratified to know that Nursology.net is reaching around the world!
Peggy, Jacqui, and colleagues, I want to express my deep gratitude for the significant work you have done and continue to carry forward. Not only have you created a meaningful and engaging website, but you have also provided our profession with a name that powerfully reflects our identity and expertise. The introduction of the term Nursology establishes nursing as a discipline with a rich body of knowledge and a rightful place alongside other well-recognized fields of study.
By adopting this designation, we embrace both our scientific foundation and our distinct perspective as nurses. This shift encourages others—our professional organizations, our educational institutions, and our various practice environments—to consider aligning policies and language with this definition. Adding “-ology” to the name reaffirms that nursing is not simply a practice or task, but a profession defined by its own theoretical frameworks, research, and evolving scholarship.
In doing so, Nursology takes its rightful place among disciplines such as cardiology, sociology, psychology, and gerontology. Just as those fields signal legitimacy, depth, and identity, so too does Nursology represent the collective knowledge and contributions of the nursing profession to humanity. This naming extends beyond symbolism: it affirms nursing’s authority as a discipline, strengthens recognition of its intellectual traditions, and positions future generations of nurses to advance the field as both practitioners of care and contributors to a distinctive and enduring body of knowledge.
Peggy,
Thank you very much for this wonderful blog celebrating nursology.net’s anniversary. It continues to be a distinct honor and pleasure to work with you and all readers and contributors to our website.
Congratulations!!!!!
Nursology.net has been a constant resource for staying current in Nursology across multiple ways of knowing. I currently have the opportunity to educate new freshman nursing students in a course titled ‘Professional Foundations of Nursing’ this fall semester, using Nursology.net as a Nursologist, and these nursing students are using the study of being nurse as Nursologist in our class. A true gift to explore and experience our compassionate, caring profession!
In wellbecoming,
Dot Dunn