What is nursing science? I think we can find the answer to the question under consideration of the philosophical situation of nursing, nature of nursing phenomenon, nursing knowledge and methodological principles.
The definition of Nursing Science is broad, so it could be defined differently depending on the perspectives of scholars. According to Dr. William Cody, “nursing science is the essence of nursing as a scholarly discipline; without it, there would be no nursing, only care” (George 2011, p. 2). Academically, caring concept of nursing is more secondary rather than fundamental. On the other hand, Dr. Gail Mitchell describes nursing science as “represents clusters of precisely selected beliefs and values that are crafted into distinct theoretical structures” (George, 2011, p. 2). Development of the nursing knowledge should be made to establish nursing as systematic independent study. Nursing as a science requires knowledge that has been proven and developed through nursing research. Although there are the different responses of seeing nursing science, both scholars approach nursing as a human science (McEwen&Wills, 2014).
Medicine is an interest in the body, but nursing science has an interest in humans. Since nursing is aimed at humans, how to look at humans has become a very important issue. The focus of human science is to understand human reactions and to be able to interpret the situations they are in. I think that nursing should be viewed from a holistic point of view instead disease- oriented viewpoint since we, today’s nurse, are practicing human centered nursing.
