Subjects of concern: troubling categories

Cox, Nigel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4159-9449 (2009) Subjects of concern: troubling categories. Nurse Researcher, 17 (1). pp. 88-92. ISSN 1351-5578

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Abstract

Nursing is described by many as ‘practice based’: an appealing and irresistible phrase, a salve for professional self-doubt, and a position that has great utility when communicating the essence of nursing to others outside the profession. Yet this is also a political position, situated in a particular configuration of relationships, identities and histories. Nursing is a practice-based profession, but it is certainly not unique in this respect. To refuse intellectually diverse scrutiny on the premise that this is somehow incompatible with the ‘art’ of nursing and a ‘practical’ closeness to the patient cannot be defended.