CFP: Thinking about Ideas in Nursing

At first glance philosophy and nursing would seem an unlikely pairing. Philosophy tends to be categorized as a practice primarily concerned with thinking; nursing as practice primarily concerned with doing. Yet, disconnecting careful thinking from nurses' doing results in an impoverished understanding of the relationship between ideas and actions if only because the idea of an unthinking nurse holds no purchase. Nursing actions are predicated on sets of ideas - including ideas related to beliefs, values, assumptions, character, and so on - held to be important. And the very idea that the ideas underpinning nursing actions are held to be important demonstrates the need for thinking as well as doing.

The aim of this conference is to provide an opportunity for nurses and philosophers to think about nursing practice; to think about the ideas that lie behind nursing actions.

Questions that might be posed include:

• What is the relationship between various complex ideas (e.g. theories, models) and nursing practice?
• How are and/or should nursing ideas be collected, organized, and changed?
• How is excellence or the lack thereof in nursing understood, measured, and assessed?
• How do our ideas about the nurse's world impact that world?
• When, and how, do ideas get adopted or rejected in nursing?
• Why do some ideas become established in nursing while others fade over time?
• What can philosophers learn about knowledge, thought, and ideas from the nurse's world?

Abstracts addressing any aspect of the relationship between nursing and philosophy are now invited.  Abstracts addressing the specific theme of Thinking about Ideas in Nursing are particularly welcome.