429072
ett / Nursing Science and SciencingNursing Science Quarterly
NSQXXX10.1177/0894318411429072Fawc
Essays on Nursing Science
Thoughts About Nursing Science
and Nursing Sciencing on the Event
of the 25th Anniversary of Nursing
Science Quarterly
Jacqueline Fawcett, RN; PhD; FAAN1
Abstract
This paper presents an essay about nursing science and asks readers to consider terminology that will encompass all types of
nursing discipline-specific knowledge. The essay was written to acknowledge the 25th anniversary of the founding of Nursing
Science Quarterly.
Keywords
nursing science, nursing sciencing, nursing knowledge development
It is an honor to have this opportunity to write about nursing
science on the momentous occasion of the 25th anniversary
of Nursing Science Quarterly. Silver anniversaries are very
special times for human beings and are perhaps even more
special as a hallmark of the maturity of our discipline. I will
be forever grateful to Rosemarie Rizzo Parse for founding
this journal, a journal that has been critical for the advance-
ment of distinctive nursing knowledge—Nursing Science
Quarterly is one of the very few nursing journals that requires
that the content of all articles be based on, guided by, or
address in some other way, distinctive nursing knowledge in
the form of recognized nursing conceptual models, grand
theories, and middle-range theories. Nursing Science Quar-
terly has given nurse scholars a place to publish their nursing
conceptual models, nursing theory–based studies, reflec-
tions, and dialogue; a journal whose reviewers do not ask
authors to delete the conceptual model or theory from the
paper prior to publication because it is unnecessary!
I am convinced that Nursing Science Quarterly publishes
the very best nursing science. What, then, exactly, is nursing
science? Barrett (2002) asked and gave a very comprehen-
sive answer to that question. She explored the definitions of
nursing and science before offering this definition of nursing
science, which she based on the definition of nursing formu-
lated by the American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel
(Parse et al., 2000):
Nursing science, a basic science, is the substantive
discipline-specific knowledge that focuses on the
human-universe-health process articulated in the nursing
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Nursing Science Quarterly
25(1) 111­–113
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0894318411429072
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frameworks and theories. The discipline-specific
knowledge resides within schools of thought that
reflect differing philosophical perspectives that give
rise to ontological, epistemological, and methodological
processes for the development and use of knowledge
concerning nursing’s unique phenomenon of concern.
(Barrett, 2002, p. 57)
This definition clearly points to the relativity of the nursing
component of nursing science—what is nursing depends
on how nursing is defined (Barrett, 2002; Fawcett, 2000).
Nursing is defined differently by each nurse theorist, and
each theorist’s definition of nursing as a noun gives rise to a
goal of nursing, with nursing considered a verb. Examples of
definitions and goals of nursing offered by nurse theorists
who developed widely-recognized nursing conceptual models
and a nursing grand theory are given in Table 1 (Fawcett,
2005).
What about the science component of nursing science?
The Oxford English Dictionary Online (2011) includes vari-
ous definitions of science, such as: the state or fact of know-
ing; knowledge acquired by study; a particular branch of
knowledge or study; and a branch of study which is con-
cerned either with a connected body of demonstrated truths
or with observed facts systematically classified and more or
less colligated by being brought under general laws, and
which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery of
1
Professor and Chairperson, Department of Nursing, University of
Massachusetts Boston
112 Nursing Science Quarterly 25(1)
Table 1. Some Nurse Theorists’ Definitions and Goals of Nursing
Nurse Theorist Definition of Nursing
Dorothy Johnson An external regulatory force
Imogene King A process of action, reaction, and
interaction
Myra Levine Human interaction
Betty Neuman Prevention as intervention
Dorothea Orem Nursing agency
Rosemarie Rizzo Nursing is a unique discipline,
Parse the practice of which is a
performing art.
Martha Rogers An independent science and an
art of practice
Callista Roy A basic science, a clinical science,
and an art
new truth within its own domain. The last definition indi-
cates that some method is needed to create the knowledge
that constitutes science. Indeed, Barrett (2002) maintained,
“Research is how we create science” (p. 51). Research, in
turn, can be defined as “a formal, systematic, and rigorous
process of inquiry used to generate and test theories” (Fawcett
& Garity, p. 5). Nursing research then can be defined as “a
formal, systematic, and rigorous process of inquiry used to
generate and test theories about the health-related experi-
ences of human beings within their environments and about
the actions and processes that nurses use in practice” (Fawcett
& Garity, 2009, p. 5).
Parse (2001) has drawn our attention to the limitations of
science as the word used to denote what nurses do when they
conduct research. Drawing from White (1938), she recom-
mended use of the term, sciencing. She pointed out that sci-
encing “is in stark contrast to science, which specifies inquiry
as pursuing and achieving the absolute truth, as if there are
undisputable, unchanging truths . . . The term sciencing
implies that knowing is ever-changing with new experiences”
(Parse, 2001, p. 1). Later, Parse (2010) explained that scienc-
ing “is coming to know; it is an ongoing inquiry to discover
and understand”(p. 281) the phenomena that are the focus of
each nursing conceptual model and theory.
I invite readers to think about the limitations imposed on
the totality of nursing discipline-specific knowledge develop-
ment by the definitions of research, science, and sciencing, all
of which emphasize the empirical nature of the activity. I ask
you to consider whether nursing is more than empirical activ-
ity and even whether Nursing Science Quarterly is the correct
title for this journal. In particular, I ask that all of us consider
whether development of aesthetic theories, ethical theories,
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Goal of Nursing
To restore, maintain, or attain behavioral system balance and dynamic stability
at the highest possible level for the individual
To help people attain, maintain, and restore health, so that they can function in
their respective roles, and to help individuals die with dignity
To promote wholeness for all people, well or sick
To facilitate optimal wellness for the client through retention, attainment, or
maintenance of client system stability
To compensate for or overcome known or emerging health-derived or health-
associated limitations of legitimate patients for self-care or dependent-care
To focus on quality of life and bear witness to humans’ changing health
patterns.
To promote human betterment wherever people are, on planet earth or in
outer space
To promote adaptation of people in each of the four adaptive modes, thus
contributing to health, quality of life, and dying with dignity
theories of personal knowing, and sociopolitical/emancipatory
theories (Chinn & Kramer, 2011; Fawcett & Garity, 2009),
as well as theories of unknowing (Munhall, 1993), should be
considered sciencing; whether we also should encourage
development of those types of theories, each of which reflects
non-empirical knowing; and whether that work should be
reported in Nursing Science Quarterly.
I look forward to a lively dialogue about these issues in
the pages of other 25th anniversary issues of Nursing
Science Quarterly and in issues throughout the years to
come.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
References
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Fawcett, J. (2005). Contemporary nursing knowledge: Analysis and
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Fawcett 113

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