The holistic paradigm in nursing: The diffusion of an innovation

Abstract

Nursing today is affected by challenges to the beliefs and values underlying the delivery of health care services. Results of a bibliometric analysis of the nursing literature since 1966 revealed a process of paradigm change in which a scientific medical model is being replaced by a model based on the concept of holism. Key ideas representing a holistic paradigm of health appear with increasing frequency in the journals of the nursing field, demonstrating the diffusion of a new and different perspective in the practice of nursing.

The corpus callosum of critical care: interprofessional education, collaboration and birth of a meta‐paradigm

“…Kuhn () believed that a new paradigm takes hold when the ruling paradigm is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of a social system. Such is the situation in health care today (Johnson, ). A dead‐end situation may be experienced not only within the dominant biomedical paradigm, but also in its counterpart, the holistic paradigm.…”

Bibliometrics, citation indexing, and the journals of nursing

“…Not all authors agree with this supposition, however. In 1990, for example, a bibliometric study by Johnson suggested that the scientific medical model was actually being gradually replaced by a model based on holism (Johnson, 1990). Even so, it is certainly possible that, for a least a proportion of nurses, the continued use of bibliometrics, citation indexing, and impact factors will be associated with the perceived "scientization" of nursing and, therefore, actively resisted by certain sectors on ideological grounds.…”

The spiritual dimensions of care in military nursing practice

“…Nursing care was largely provided from within the framework of religious organizations 1 . In this context, the spirit was considered of equal importance in determining health and well‐being as the body and the mind 2–5 . This notion forms the basis of our understanding of a holistic approach to nursing and health care.…”