Jürgen Habermas critical social theory and its role in nursing: A narrative review

Nursing education is changing from focusing on behavioral outcomes to focusing on human and caring aspects of nursing. This transformation emphasizes the understanding of social, economic and political factors in the context of current health care system reforms. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of knowing Habermas' theory and its impact on nursing education and care.

The research method was descriptive-analytical. The research population consisted of all published documents on postmodernism with emphasis on Habermas's views and its impact on nursing. Extensive searches of PubMed electronic databases, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus were carried out until 2022 with no time limit.

Habermas's critical theory of reality in three different perspectives; the objective view distinguishes the subjective view and the social world. Objective theories serve as the core and measurement for quality assurance and patient safety. Subjectivity in health care services may be related to personal values, behaviors and attitudes of health care workers. The social world is the structured process of interactions between or between health care professionals and patients.

The critical paradigm helps to change and transfer from old to new methods and is a suggested paradigm in nursing education to adapt to these changes. Nurses can use critical theory to explore the political aspects of unsafe and harmful health conditions.