Page 39 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

NU RSING: THE PHILO S OPHY A ND SCIENCE OF C A R I N G , revI s e d ed I t I o n
person-nature-universe. It reintroduces spirit and sacred dimensions
back into our work and life and world. It allows for a reunion between
metaphysics and the material-physical world of modern science.
In positing Caring Science as the disciplinary context and matrix
that guides professional development and maturity, I acknowledge
that there is a difference between the discipline of nursing and the pro-
fession of nursing. It is widely known that the discipline (of any field)
should inform the profession. The disciplinary matrix of Caring car-
ries the meta-paradigm, the values, the metaphysics, the philosophical-
moral meta-narrative with respect to what it means to be human, hon-
oring unity of Being, the oneness of mind-body-spirit/universe; the
discipline offers subject matter foci and a distinct perspective on the
subject matter. The profession, without clarity of its disciplinary con-
text, loses its way in the midst of the outer-worldly changes and forces
for conformity to the status quo of the moment.
The discipline of nursing, from my position, is/should be grounded
in Caring Science; this, in turn, informs the profession. Caring Science
informs and serves as the moral-philosophical-theoretical-foundational
starting point for nursing education, patient care, research, and even
administrative practices.
If nursing across time had been born and matured within the
consciousness and clarity of a Caring Science orientation, perhaps it
would be in a very different evolved place today: a place beyond the
struggles with conventional biomedical-technical science that linger
still, beyond the crisis in care that haunts hospitals and systems today,
beyond the critical shortage of nurses and nursing that society is expe-
riencing at this turn in history, and beyond the noncaring communities
in our life and world. Our world is increasingly struggling with wars,
violence, and inhumane acts—be they human-to human, human-to-
environment, or human-to-nature.
In spite of an evolved cosmology for all disciplines today, includ-
ing physics and basic sciences and other scientific fields, we still often
find ourselves locked in outdated thinking within a separatist-material-
physical world ontology and an outer-worldview as our starting point.
Caring Science, in contrast, has as its starting point a relational ontol-
ogy that honors the fact that we are all connected and Belong to

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