Critical Realism: Tenets and Application in Nursing

Nursing is a distinct scientific professional discipline, with a specific body of knowledge obtained through research and clinical practice. Today, a PhD nursing scholar is entrusted with shaping and preserving the quality and vitality of professional nursing. Evidences that are assembled from diverse paradigms of inquiry, nursing theories and philosophies are more fitted to address the basic question of theory practice gap in nursing discipline. Moreover, today’s health and healthcare practices are multifaceted and professional nursing practice entails knowledge development to support this intricacy. Critical realism is one of the philosophical approaches that challenge such complexities and enables nurse researchers to work collaboratively across various disciplines and methods (Clark, Lissel and Davis, 2008).