Approaches to Nursing Science Methods

The qualitative‐quantitative debate: moving from positivism and confrontation to post‐positivism and reconciliation

“…The concept of paradigm is more frequently presented by nursing authors in isolation from other aspects of Kuhn’s cyclical theory of scientific development ( Allen et al 1986 , Cull Wilby & Pepin 1987, Cushing 1994, Carr 1994). Historically, nursing authors tend instead to use the concept to categorise research methods into one of two paradigms, the qualitative or the quantitative ( Ford‐Gilboe et al 1995 , Carr 1994, Cushing 1994, Rolfe 1994, Dzurec & Abraham 1993, Gortner & Schultz 1988, Moccia 1988, Leininger 1985).…”

“…Though useful for control and prediction, that which could not be seen could not make claims to existence. Consequently, though theories involving unobservable phenomena could be used to generate predictions relating to reality, they could not explain occurrences because they were not held to exist ( Gortner & Schultz 1988, Blackburn 1994, Poole & Jones 1996). Under this view, theories had limited explanatory power.…”

“…that which is certain) leads post‐positivists away from a positivist conception of truth. That some guide to what could be trusted as ‘true’ was required amongst this uncertainty, can explain the adoption of a coherence view of truth in which claims to knowledge were judged in the context of rational, informed communal judgements ( Bronowski 1956, Norbeck 1987, Gortner & Schultz 1988, Ziman 1991, Schumacher & Gortner 1992, Dolby 1996).…”

Nursing Science: The Challenge to Develop Knowledge

“…Excellence in science has been judged from a number of perspectives. Gortner and Schultz (1988) provide a recent cataloguing of well-accepted criteria for judging excellence in science: significance, theory-observation congruency, generalizability, science, reproducibility, precision, and intersubjectivity. Significance refers to the contribution of knowledge or research findings to practice as well as to the broader body of knowledge.…”

“…Recently, this definition was placed in perspective with Gortner and Schultz's (1988, p. 23) statement that the goal of nursing science &dquo;is to represent nature, in particular human nature, to understand it and explain it for the benefit of mankind.&dquo; Although science is not the same as the process of systematic inquiry by which it is evolved, science is shaped by the characteristics of the research process and the selection preferences of the scientific community's investigators (DeGroot, 1988). Nursing research can be defined as &dquo;the systematic process of inquiry which utilizes a variety of methodological approaches to investigate the questions and concepts of interest in nursing&dquo; (Hinshaw, 1987, p. 5).…”