Yes, Virginia, Nursing Does Have Laws

Abstract

In this article the author explores the possibility of the emergence of nursing laws as a natural consequence of the maturation and evolution of selected areas of nursing knowledge. To support this proposition, the evolution of social and scientific laws and their meanings are discussed. In addition, the roles that empirical validation and logical adequacy play in epistemological development, including the development of discipline-specific laws, are explored. Two areas of nursing knowledge in which laws may be emerging, as well as the foundation of these laws, are identified.