Mapping social processes at work in nursing knowledge development |
| |
Authors: | Patti Hamilton RN PhD Eileen Willis PhD Julie Henderson PhD Clare Harvey RN BA MA PhD Luisa Toffoli RN PhD Elizabeth Abery BHSc Claire Verrall RN MN |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, , Denton, Texas, USA;2. Department of Social Health Science, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Flinders University, , Adelaide, South Australia, Australia;3. Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Eastern Institute of Technology, , Hawkes Bay, New Zealand;4. Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of South Australia, , Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| |
Abstract: | In this paper, we suggest a blueprint for combining bibliometrics and critical analysis as a way to review published scientific works in nursing. This new approach is neither a systematic review nor meta‐analysis. Instead, it is a way for researchers and clinicians to understand how and why current nursing knowledge developed as it did. Our approach will enable consumers and producers of nursing knowledge to recognize and take into account the social processes involved in the development, evaluation, and utilization of new nursing knowledge. We offer a rationale and a strategy for examining the socially‐sanctioned actions by which nurse scientists signal to readers the boundaries of their thinking about a problem, the roots of their ideas, and the significance of their work. These actions – based on social processes of authority, credibility, and prestige – have bearing on the careers of nurse scientists and on the ways the knowledge they create enters into the everyday world of nurse clinicians and determines their actions at the bedside, as well as their opportunities for advancement. |
| |
Keywords: | bibliometric knowledge literature nursing publishing social process |
|
|