Uncovering Meaning: How Nursing Knowledge Changes Policy in Practice

Abstract

What ethical values, assumptions, and beliefs guide nursing practice today? What is the purpose and intent of policy in relationship to nursing practice? What underlying assumptions, values, and beliefs are missed in policy development that is not informed by nursing knowledge? These are some of the questions the authors attempt to answer in this paper. They examine some of the ethical dilemmas that arise when nurses are required to enforce policy that conflicts with nursing theory. A description of how nursing theory informs miss-takes (that is, missed assumptions, missed understandings, missed views and values) highlights how nursing knowledge changes policy in practice.