| Description |
The purpose of this study is to develop a critical perspective which can be used to address the social reality of nursing. The study uses the tradition of the Frankfurt School and critical theory as the primary intellectual frameworks for developing this perspective. The investigation is primarily an exploratory, reflective study which seeks to develop a critical consciousness about nursing. The methodology used in this study differs significantly from empirical-analytic modes of inquiry. The investigation proceeds via the process of reflection. Radical reflection, the method used in this study, contains five stages or steps. They include: bracketing, historical recovery, critique, dialectical imagination and negotiation. The study proceeds in an exploratory way through each of these steps. As in other forms of reflection, findings produced in this study take the form of hypotheses. The study generates insights or interpretive hypotheses about the social construction of reality in nursing. As in other examples of reflection, these are hypotheses whose confirmation depends upon continued negotiation among nurses. Specific findings generated in this study include 1) a critique of scientistic consciousness in nursing, 2) a critique of bourgeois professional ideology in nursing and 3) a critique of sexism in nursing. |
