Is Practical Nursing Experience Necessary in Administration,Education,and Research?

Abstract

Because nursing is a practice discipline involving a relationship between nurse and client based on moral commitments of nurse to client, it is critically important that nurse administrators, educators, and researchers have experienced that relationship in practice. Nurse administrators need that basis to found a vision of nursing required to lead and guide. Nurse educators need to have experienced nursing practice to engage nursing students in praxis, that act of reflection and action. Nurse researchers need to have practiced nursing to identify critical areas of focus in nursing practice and to give meaning to the interpretation of findings. The author urges greater convergence and clarity in identifying the nonnegotiables of nursing’s art and science, including the importance of nursing practice as foundational to nursing work.

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