N1109 Week 2: Theories and Concepts

Phenomenology

• Study of 'being in the world' (Heidegger).

• 'World' includes the meaningful relationships, practices, and language we have by being born into a culture.

Phenomenology in relation to health

• The client's lived experience is central to understanding them.

• Assessment ('coming to know') is more than vital signs.

Humanism

• focuses on treating every person as valuable, understanding them as an individual, and helping them reach their full potential.

• Caring involves relationships that promote self-discovery and self-actualization (Maslow), based on unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding, and genuineness (Rogers).

• Affirms/understand the dignity, worth, uniqueness, and potential of all people.

Humanism and technology in health care

Technology helps (workload, communication, records, fewer errors) but can harm caring, humanism, and the nurse-client relationship.

Feminism

• worldview that empowers and confronts systematic, inherent/inborn injustices in societal, political, and economic structures that limit and block access to resources.

• Started with oppression of women; now includes both genders and marginalized groups.

Feminism: three themes

1) Belief in the dignity and autonomy of the person (not tied to sexual/biological roles)

• person's right and ability to make their own decisions about their life and healthcare.

2) belief in gender equality and changing power imbalances

3) expressing equality through theoretical knowledge and action.

Feminism and intersection of oppressions (person can experience multiple forms of disadvantage at the same time)

• Examines how different forms of discrimination and privilege overlap to affect people's experiences.

• Questions how society's beliefs about what is true or normal are influenced by culture, social circumstances, and power.

Feminism: what must you understand?

• It's not just about women. It's about recognizing and addressing inherent injustices built into structures and systems.

Post-colonialism

• Colonial rule shaped cultural forms and norms globally.

• Indigenous cultures were profoundly affected by the imposed social and spiritual norms of colonizers.

• nurses need to attend to the social conditions related to colonization and racism (Doane & Varcoe).

Post-colonialism: nurse's role

• Identify and actively work to dismantle colonial systems in health and education

• recognize inequality continued through occupation and assimilation.

Empiricism

• 'The pursuit of knowledge through experience, observation and experimentation.'

• Context and the complexity of our relationships with our environments are central to contemporary empirical work.

Empiricism: historical bias in nursing evidence

Western scientific evidence (e.g., randomized double-blind studies) has been treated as more valid than other types of knowledge.

Critical social theory

• Question/addresses social, economic, and power relationships in society.

• Examines historical ideologies and contexts because ideas from the past shape the structures built today.

• The widely accepted beliefs (dogma) and ideas in society are questioned to determine whether they are valid, ethical, and fair (justified).

Critical social theory: awareness

• Stresses awareness of social, economic, and power conditions (Freire).

• Ideas must be constantly re-evaluated because conditions change every time we act.

Questions critical social theorists ask

• What is the dominant discourse?

• What is the status quo?

• Whose voices are heard and whose aren't?

• Who holds the power, knowledge, and privilege, and why?

Critical social theory: nurse's role

• promote health

• prevent disease

• alleviate/reduce suffering requires for political activism at local, national, and global levels.

Situatedness

• How we think and behave is influenced by where we live, the people around us, and our culture

• To understand someone’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, we need to consider their surroundings and life experiences

= environment, society, culture

Positionality

• How differences in social position and power shape identities and access in society.

• Fluid and relational

• Identities are shaped by socially constructed positions and memberships embedded in society as a system.

Privilege

• Social advantages, benefits, or prestige/respect gained by belonging to certain social identity groups.

• Privileged identities are those historically in dominant positions: white, male, heterosexual, Christian, wealthy.

Intersectionality

The interconnectedness of social categories (race, gender, class, sexuality, ability) that together shape a person's experiences and opportunities.