Pragmatism in Nursing; A Critical Review

 During the last fifty years, the doctrine of pragmatism has emerged as the dominant philosophy in nursing, and many studies have dealt with the issue of pragmatism in nursing with a mostly positive view. In this article, the pragmatism philosophy in nursing knowledge, education, research and practice is examined with a critical stance.

 This study is a non-systematic narrative review, which is carried out separately and combined based on Mesh keywords including Nursing, Pragmatism, Knowledge, Practice, Education, Research Critique and through internet search in ISI databases, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. The titles found were checked in terms of thematic relevance and a summary was taken from the selected documents.

Very few articles have criticized pragmatism in nursing. From the point of view of knowledge and nursing education, the most important challenge of pragmatism can be summed up in the fear of widening the gap between theory and practice. Also, one of the most important criticisms of pragmatism in nursing research and practice is the lack of paradigm stability and ignoring the unique care needs of each patient.

For a long time, pragmatism has been intertwined with the fabric of nursing, so that some interpret the philosophical foundations of nursing based on the teachings of this school. Perhaps it is better that this one-sided view is slightly moderated and should be paid more attention to the possibly unpleasant and negative effects of this school on nursing.