This blog is dedicated to Jacqueline Fawcett,
who died unexpectedly in March this year.
Jacqui was a founder of the site, and
contributed substantially to its content.
Her spirit lives on in these pages.

Eight years ago, Nursology.net came to life with an ambitious idea: to create a freely accessible home for nursing’s disciplinary knowledge—a place where nurses, students, educators, scholars, and anyone interested in nursing could explore the theories, ideas, and ways of knowing that give our discipline its distinctive perspective.

The idea for a website featuring nursing theories grew out of discussions among members of the Theory-Guided Practice Expert Panel of the American Academy of Nursing. Panel members were concerned that nursing education programs were eliminating courses focused on nursing theory, while many programs were increasing their focus on “expanded” roles for nurses who were assuming a number of medical-centric functions.

Our concern was not an objection to nurses assuming these functions. Rather, it reflected a growing concern about a drift away from nursing’s own perspective and a commitment to preserving the values, ideals, and disciplinary knowledge that have guided nursing over many decades.

At the same time, nurse leaders in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing embarked on a revision of the Essentials that guide the development of baccalaureate and advanced degree curricula. What became Domain 1, Knowledge for Nursing Practice, addresses the “integration, translation, and application of established and evolving disciplinary nursing knowledge and ways of knowing.”

Against this backdrop, Nursology.net was unveiled in the fall of 2018 as an independent initiative, not tied to any formal nursing organization. And the site soon became, in its own way, an “essential” resource!

Our first blog post appeared on September 18, 2018: “Today – the official launch of Nursology.net!”

What We Set Out to Create

Nursing theory was—and remains—at the heart of Nursology.net. From the beginning, we envisioned a resource that would represent not only the theories of the discipline, but to include the applicability, richness and breadth of nursing knowledge.

Over the years, the site has grown to include:

• Nursing’s fundamental patterns of knowing.
• Exemplars showing the application of nursing theory in practice, education, research, policy, and quality improvement.
• Information about societies and associations devoted to the ongoing development and application of nursing knowledge.
• Information and links for conferences sponsored by these societies and associations.
• An In Memoriam gallery that provides a historical record of nurse theorists who are no longer living.
• A Guardians of the Discipline gallery recognizing nurse leaders who were not themselves theorists, but who protected and sustained the development of nursing knowledge.

Together, these resources have helped Nursology.net become not only a repository of nursing knowledge, but also a record of the people, communities, and ideas that have shaped—and continue to shape—our discipline.

A Very Special Resource: The FITNE Videos

One resource that deserves special mention is the freely available collection of videos featuring interviews with a number of the early nursing theorists. Known as the FITNE videos, they were produced by the Fuld Institute for Technology in Nursing.

These remarkable historical interviews were previously available only for purchase or rental from the Fuld Institute. In 2023, through a generous donation from Jacqueline Fawcett and with the consent of the Fuld Institute, the videos became freely available for viewing by Nursology.net visitors.

We are delighted that Nursology.net can help preserve this important part of nursing’s intellectual heritage and make it accessible to nurses and students around the world.

Hidden Gems

There are also a number of Nursology.net features that are hidden in plain sight! Here are a few of our “hidden gems” that you might enjoy exploring:

• Along with descriptions of and links to original sources for each nursing theory, we include a brief biography and photograph of the nurse author or authors.
• We provide source information in the captions for images. This is not common World Wide Web practice, but we believe that the source of an image, like a citation to a text, is an important part of accountabiliy.
• Every blog post is assigned one or more categories. Click on a category in the sidebar and you can explore all the posts related to that topic, including posts from years ago. You have to scroll down (and down and down!) to find the category list, but you will be rewarded with a rich collection of related blog posts when you click on any category.
• Posts are also tagged to make them more discoverable through searches. Tags include blog authors’ names as well as keywords related to the title and content.
• The sidebar includes links for contributing to the blog, guidelines for comments, and other resources worth exploring.

After eight years, even those of us who know the site well can sometimes rediscover something we had forgotten was there!

Eight Years—and Counting

As we celebrate this eighth birthday, we are reminded that Nursology.net has become much more than the website we first imagined in 2018. It is an evolving, community-created home for nursing knowledge, history, dialogue, and possibility. The site now consists of over 300 distinct pages, many of which are accessed through the AirTable Galleries. The 90+ theories are accessed through the Models & Theories gallery, and through the Theory/Model Author gallery. We have an advisory team that meets monthly to discuss the ongoing development of the site, and we are now nurturing a team of young scholars who are participating in the management of the site, and learning the skills of working with the WordPress platform that provides our internet space.

None of this would have happened without the many people who have contributed their knowledge, ideas, writing, time, photographs, resources, encouragement, and financial support. Nor would the site have meaning without the thousands of visitors who come to explore, learn, question, teach, and carry nursing knowledge into their own work.

To all of you who have been part of this journey: thank you!

As we look toward the years ahead, our commitment remains the same: honoring our heritage while building our future.

And now, for our birthday celebration, here are a few photographs from those early days when Nursology.net was just beginning.

Happy 8th Birthday, Nursology.net! Here’s to the knowledge we have inherited, the community we continue to build, and all the possibilities still ahead.

* ChatGPT was used to refine the grammar, punctuation and flow of this blog