Fundamentals of Nursing Q 67
Which of the following aspects of nursing is essential to defining it as both a profession and a discipline?
A. Established standards of care
B. Professional organizations
C. Practice supported by scientific research
D. Activities determined by a scope of practice
Correct Answer: C. Practice supported by scientific research
A profession must have knowledge that is based on technical and scientific knowledge. The theoretical knowledge of a discipline must be based on research, so both are scientifically based. The profession of nursing consists of persons educated in the discipline according to nationally regulated, defined, and monitored standards. The standards and regulations are to preserve healthcare safety for members of society. Although the discipline and the profession of nursing have different goals, the raison d’être of nursing is the enhancement of quality of life for humankind. The discipline provides the science lived in the art of practice.
Option A: The American Nurses Association (ANA) has developed standards of care, but they are unrelated to defining nursing as a profession or discipline. Nursing is a discipline and a profession. The goal of the discipline is to expand knowledge about human experiences through creative conceptualization and research. This knowledge is the scientific guide to living the art of nursing. The discipline-specific knowledge is given birth and fostered in academic settings where research and education move the knowledge to new realms of understanding.
Option B: Having professional organizations is not included in accepted characteristics of either a profession or a discipline. The goal of the profession is to provide service to humankind through living the art of science. Members of the nursing profession are responsible for regulation of standards of practice and education based on disciplinary knowledge that reflects safe health service to society in all settings.
Option D: Having a scope of practice is not included in accepted characteristics of either a profession or a discipline. The discipline of nursing encompasses the knowledge in the extant frameworks and theories that are embedded in the totality and simultaneity paradigms (Parse, 1987). These theories and frameworks explicate the nature of nursing’s major phenomenon of concern, the human-universe-health process.