Building the Science of Nursing: Continuum from Past to Future

The last decade has seen a rise in the calls for advancing the science of nursing [1-3]. However, the definition of the term science of nursing, even though familiar to many nurses, continues to be unclear, in part due to its numerous interpretations [4]. In addition, nurses often find themselves in situations where they have to answer the fundamental question “What do nurses do?”. There is little doubt that nurses are the center of a patient’s wellbeing and often use their expertise to participate closely in the healing process of both the sick and their families. Nevertheless, the nurse’s expertise in this process is sometimes not fully understood, thus resulting in the use of terminologies such as intuition and gut feelings by some, which ultimately renders the nursing knowledge more mystical than professional [5]. Although at times the work of nurses can be explained by activities such as administering medication, teaching, providing psychosocial support, assessing the health status of an individual, and use of therapeutic touch, the essence of nursing involves difficult to define ideas and practices [6]. Daly et al., [7] warned that nursing’s difficulty in articulating its unique nature in health care settings continues to put the survival of nursing as a distinct discipline at risk.