Nursing knowledge: A middle ground exploration

The discipline of nursing has long maintained that is has a unique contribution to make within the health care arena. This assertion of uniqueness lies in great part in the discipline's claim to a distinct body of knowledge. Nursing knowledge is characterized by diverse and multiple forms of knowing and underpins the work of all nurses, regardless of field of practice. Unfortunately, it has been challenging for the discipline to take full ownership of its epistemological diversity, largely due to factors such as competing worldviews, and ideological and binary positioning. A philosophical middle ground stance is proposed as a way for the discipline to contemplate, discuss and develop nursing knowledge; a middle space that provides the freedom to consider competing worldviews while still allowing for the discipline to fully express itself in all of its epistemological diversity. In being able to enact its multiple forms of knowledge in a creative and open space that is open to different ideas and worldviews, not only can nursing take full ownership of its practice and its unique knowledge, it can also demonstrate how best to navigate an increasingly polarized world. In a world that is increasingly fixated on binary solutions and dualistic points of view, it is time for nursing to celebrate its epistemological diversity.