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148 UNIT II Nursing Philosophies

how the nursing profession must operate if it is not to to address this problem. The course was established
let down its weakest patients and those that need care jointly by the University of Bergen, the county
the most. The obvious follow-up question was how authorities, and three nursing colleges. A nurse with
the nurse might be able to care for the patient when university level qualifications was needed to head the
medical science first and foremost relates to patient’s program. Martinsen was asked to be Dean of the Fac-
diseases? In other words, Martinsen wanted to know ulty of Nursing Teachers’ Training in Bergen, which
how we who represent the health services provide she accepted from 1976 to 1977.
adequate nursing for the subjects of our care, when Through her philosophical studies and the socio-
we are so closely allied with a science that objectifies logical issues she encountered in practical nursing
the patient. She posed questions about whether that and in nursing education, Martinsen developed an
same objectification would increase with emphasis on interest in nursing history. How did education of
a scientific base for the discipline of nursing. nurses in Norway begin, who was responsible for its
These fundamental questions urged Martinsen to inception, and what did they wish to achieve? In
take up additional studies, this time for a bachelor’s order to look more closely at some of these issues,
degree in psychology at the University of Oslo in 1968, Martinsen applied for and received a grant from the
with the goal of obtaining a master’s degree in psychol- Norwegian Nurses’ Association in 1976. She was
ogy. As a prerequisite, she needed an intermediate affiliated with the Department of Hygiene and Social
examination in physiology and another free credit at Medicine at the University of Bergen, where she lec-
the intermediate level; here she chose philosophy. This tured to students in the nursing teachers’ training
encounter with philosophy and phenomenology program and also students in social medicine.
changed her thinking drastically. She realized that At that time, an intense debate over nursing educa-
philosophy rather than psychology might better illumi- tion was raging in Norway. A public commission
nate the existential questions with which she was con- proposed retention of the traditional 3-year degree
cerned. The study of phenomenology attracted her to but eventually agreed to alter this to a system of stage-
the University of Bergen, Norway’s second largest city. based qualification. This meant that after completion
From 1972 to 1974, she attended the Department of 1 year, a student became a qualified care assistant,
of Philosophy at the University of Bergen. In her work and after 2 additional years, a qualified nurse. This
for the graduate degree in philosophy (Magister implied the end of the principle of a comprehensive
artium), Martinsen grappled philosophically with 3-year degree. Nurses throughout the country, with
questions that had disturbed her as a citizen, a profes- the Norwegian Nurses’ Association at the forefront,
sional, and a health care worker. The dissertation marched in protest to save the 3-year nursing degree.
Philosophy and Nursing: A Marxist and Phenomeno- Sides in this debate remained rigidly opposed, and the
logical Contribution (Martinsen, 1975) created an tone of the political discourse on the issue of nursing
instant debate and received much critical attention. education was heated. Martinsen threw herself into
The dissertation directed a critical gaze toward the this debate. She suggested that nursing education be
nursing profession for its refusal to take seriously the changed to a 4-year program, but also gave her
consequences of the nursing discipline uncritically approval to the principle of stage-based education. She
adopting characteristics of a profession, and uncriti- sketched an educational model in which one is quali-
cally embracing only a scientific basis for nursing. fied as a care assistant after 2 years and as a nurse after
Such a development might contribute to distancing 4 years (Martinsen, 1976). With the comprehensive
nurses from the patients who need them most. This 3-year degree as the stated goal for the nursing asso-
dissertation, the first written by a nurse in Norway, ciation, her suggestion was viewed as a provocation.
analyzed the discipline of nursing from a critical In 1978, Martinsen received a grant from Norway’s
philosophical and social perspective. General Science Research Council. At this time, she
During the mid-1970s, Norway experienced a was attached to the history department at the Univer-
marked shortage of nursing teachers. The rectors of sity of Oslo, where she worked on her new project on
three nursing colleges in Bergen took the initiative to the social history of nursing, while lecturing master’s
establish a temporary nursing teacher–training course degree students in sociopolitical history. From 1981