In this episode, Ian decribes two different definitions of what constitutes nursing - one from the 1960s and one from the 1990s, as nursing science trended toward an epistemology much more tightly aligned with postmodern existentialism as it moved away from logical empiricism. This is to provide a glimpse of what may frustrate students about Nursing Theory coursework; it often strikes them as not useful or relevant or even related to their clinical practices, which is why they generally sought nursing as a career in the first place. This isn't to say Nursing Theories and their respective definitions of nursing practice aren't highly valuable, it's just to say that they're not all of equal validity, and undergraduate students simply do not have the time or bandwidth or inclination to sort through them. (Hopefully, they can join us on the podcast to tease these out over time and come to their own conclusions.)
