General Nursing and Occupational Health Nursing

Abstract

T he science of nursing as a whole has moved forward during the last 100 years, particularly since 1950. Not all of its components, or specialty areas, have progressed to the same degree or at the same rate, however. The purpose of this article is to compare general nursing with the specialty area of occupational health nursing in terms of scientific progress. To do this comparison, areas of focus that are indices of this scientific progress and are common to each are examined, as is their historical development. The study of history "represents the potential for the discovery of a unity and continuity in one's identity" (Church, 1987). It is important in nursing to have a common identity within the profes