Colloque

The Development of Nursing's Intellectual Foundations: Nursing at McGill, 1920-1975

Lynn Kirkwood

Membre a labase

Lynn Kirkwood

Résumé du colloque

Today nurses face more and more complex health problems, both client-centred and system driven, forcing them to examine their "raison d'être" and their future goals. From this search for future meaning comes a need for continuity with our past. One of the most pressing questions for nurses debating our future contributions to health care concerns what is, or has been, the intellectual foundation of our discipline. Using archival records, curriculum documents and oral histories of early nursing educators along with secondary supporting evidence, this paper will explore the intellectual roots and development of nursing knowledge at McGill University School of Nursing from 1920 - 1975. Three phases of development have been identified-demonstration of nurses' intellectual ability within mainstream academic disciplines, development and organization of scientific nursing curriculum, and the creation of expert nursing practice. None of these phases are discrete. Even today in university schools of nursing aspects of the first are relevant.