Conceptualizing Nursing Inquiry

When one assumes a new role or responsibility, the boundaries and scope that seemed so crystal clear from a distance begin to take on a new fuzziness. Having occupied the position of editor-in-chief of Nursing Inquiry for several months now, I am increasingly aware that the kind of scholarly conversation this journal attempts to stimulate resides, as the title implies, at the intersection of two delightfully complex and complicated concepts. In trying to explain to people (such as prospective authors) what does and does not contribute to this particular conversation, I find that language to capture and delineate it with any useful clarity is actually rather elusive. Therefore, toward this end, the editorial board and I have embarked on a process of trying to reframe the modern incarnation of the vision this journal has always represented. In the coming editions, you can look forward to that new articulation as a manifestation of the journal’s strategic direction. Since Judith Parker’s inaugural editorial for the first edition in November 1994, Nursing Inquiry has represented a distinctive forum for the advancement of ideas pertaining to the discipline and its practice within an evolving and dynamic intellectual environment. Judith’s vision was that it could facilitate intellectual growth by embracing the blurring of traditional disciplinary and methodological boundaries and nurturing a ‘radical critique and breakdown of traditional oppositional categories, such as science/art, mind/body, subject/object, and theory/practice’ (1). She envisioned a space within which a wide range of issues of profound importance to nurses could be examined, deconstructed and advanced. And toward this end, she gathered around her a world class editorial board of thinkers and scholars with a similarly inspired vision. Comments from many of those new board members were cited in an addendum to that first editorial (2). Margarete Sandelowski commented on the potential to stimulate an ‘international dialogue concerning inquiry in what has become an increasingly diverse and enviably rich field of scholarship.’ David Allen described his aspirations for ‘conversations and constructive critique among nurses who are committed to articulating the relationships between nursing inquiry and various forms of social injustice.’ Joan Anderson acknowledged the value of a journal ‘dedicated to issues that are centre stage in the emerging discourse on epistemology and different methodological perspectives.’ Noting the extent to which the critical tradition had to that point been marginalized in nursing scholarship, Anneli Sarvimäki reflected on the journal’s potential contribution to the ‘critical reflection, historical, social and ecological awareness, emancipation and empowerment’ sought by the profession. And Anne Marie Rafferty expressed the hope that it would offer ‘a suitable and sympathetic outlet’ for intellectual developments within nursing that provide an ‘innovative edge and critical bite to nursing issues, one that will celebrate and testify to the growing strength and sophistication of nursing scholarship.’ Building upon its Australian (and postcolonial) roots, Sioban Nelson clearly signaled an expanded scope for the journal in a 1999 editorial. Challenging the readership to the process of learning to live successfully within a global village of ideas, she articulated a vision that included thinking about content and rigor in increasingly broad terms and learning to tolerate one another’s ‘intellectual fashions’ (223). In a later editorial, in 2006, she framed the journal’s evolving direction as encouraging ‘cross-disciplinary intellectual projects,’ the ‘rethinking of approaches and perspectives,’ and endeavoring to ‘air new ideas and hear new voices’ from scholars worldwide who are concerned about matters pertaining to health-care systems, patient care, and nursing practice (Nelson 1999). These visionary and evolving ideals created a solid and strong foundation upon which to build the journal’s next generation. In keeping with its well-established aspirations to remain at the forefront of ideas relevant to the discipline, the editorial board and I will continue to conceptualize this intersection of nursing and inquiry and wrestle with language to articulate the part that this journal seeks to play within the changing constellation of scholarly conversations and debates. Together, we will ensure that Nursing Inquiry continues to stand for ideas at the leading edge of health and health-care analysis, conceptualizations that challenge our individual and collective understandings about health phenomena, and arguments that advance our disciplinary thinking about those matters of central importance to the health-care systems we engage with and the populations we serve. Inquiring nurses deserve no less.

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