Paper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Nursing and the Avant-Garde
John S. Drummond, RN, DipN, MEd, PhD, School of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
| Learning Objective #1: Relate the importance of the avant-garde to nursing discourse and practice |
| Learning Objective #2: Consider the role of nursing in the humanities in the 21st Century |
This paper seeks to draw out the sense in which nursing has a role to play in the humanities of the 21st century. It does this by exploring the relationship between nursing and the theory of the avant-garde. The paper will argue that, although the term ‘avant-garde’ suggests something ahead of its time, it is always actually a returning to something. This is to say returning to something to think again, to think of something in a new way (reconnaissance). Drawing on the work of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, I argue that the role of nursing in the new humanities is to keep returning to its first principles, that of the human condition (humanitus), but this in a manner that takes into account the changes that are occurring in the humanities across both the practice and education sectors. Improvements in nursing, whether it be in some aspect of practice or professional issue always involves returning to something, to think of something in a new way. It is this concept of returning (reconnaissance) that leads me to argue that nursing has much to learn from the theory of the avant-garde as it takes its place at the table of the new humanities; to give consideration to the question: ‘What is the nursing that is yet to come?’
Back to Nursing History
Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004