Philosophy offers a means of unpacking and grappling with important questions and issues relevant to nursing practice, research, scholarship, and education. By engaging in these discussions, this Handbook provides a gateway to new understandings of nursing. The Handbook, which is split loosely into seven sections, begins with a foundational chapter exploring philosophy’s relationship to and with nursing and nursing theory. Subsequent sections thereafter examine a wide range of philosophic issues relevant to nursing knowledge and activity. Philosophy and nursing, philosophy and science, nursing theory Nursing’s ethical dimension is described Philosophic questions concerning patient care are investigated Socio-contextual and political concerns relevant to nursing are unpacked Contributors tackle difficult questions confronting nursing Difficulties around speech, courage, and race/otherness are discussed Philosophic questions pertaining to scholarship, research, and technology are addressed International in scope, this volume provides a vital reference for all those interested in thinking about nursing, whether students, practitioners, researchers, or educators.

The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Medicine is a comprehensive guide to topics in the fields of epistemology and metaphysics of medicine. It examines traditional topics such as the concept of disease, causality in medicine, the epistemology of the randomized controlled trial, the biopsychosocial model, explanation, clinical judgment and phenomenology of medicine and emerging topics, such as philosophy of epidemiology, measuring harms, the concept of disability, nursing perspectives, race and gender, the metaphysics of Chinese medicine, and narrative medicine. Each of the 48 chapters is written especially for this volume and with a student audience in mind. For pedagogy and clarity, each chapter contains an extended example illustrating the ideas discussed. This text is intended for use as a reference for students in courses in philosophy of medicine and philosophy of science, and pairs well with The Routledge Companion to Bioethics for use in medical humanities and social science courses.

*** Awarded First Place in the 2015 AJN Book of the Year Award in two categories - "History and Public Policy" and "Professional Issues" *** This anthology presents the philosophical and practice perspectives of nurse scholars whose works center on promoting nursing research, practice, and education within frameworks of social justice and critical theories. Social justice nursing is defined by the editors as nursing practice that is emancipatory and rests on the principle of praxis which is practice aimed at attaining social justice goals and outcomes that improve health experiences and conditions of individuals, their communities, and society. There is a lack in the nursing discipline of resources that contain praxis approaches and there is a need for new concepts, models, and theories that could encompass scholarship and practice aimed at purposive reformation of nursing, other health professions, and health care systems. Chapters bridge critical theoretical frameworks and nursing science in ways that are understandable and useful for practicing nurses and other health professionals in clinical settings, in academia, and in research. In this book, nurses’ ideas and knowledge development efforts are not limited to problems and solutions emerging from the dominant discourse or traditions. The authors offer innovative ways to work towards establishing alternative forms of knowledge, capable of capturing both the roots and complexity of contemporary problems as distributed across a diversity of people and communities. It fills a significant gap in the literature and makes an exceptional contribution as a collection of new writings from some of the foremost nursing scholars whose works are informed by critical frameworks.

This book explores the scope, application and role of medical law, regulatory norms and ethics, and addresses key challenges introduced by contemporary advances in biomedical research and healthcare. While mindful of national developments, the handbook supports a global perspective in its approach to medical law. Contributors include leading scholars in both medical law and ethics, who have developed specially commissioned pieces in order to present a critical overview and analysis of the current state of medical law and ethics. Each chapter offers comprehensive coverage of longstanding and traditional topics in medical law and ethics, and provides dynamic insights into contemporary and emerging issues in this heavily debated field. Topics covered include: Bioethics, health and human rights Medical liability Law and emerging health technologies Public health law Personalized medicine The law and ethics of access to medicines in developing countries Medical research in the genome era Emerging legal and ethical issues in reproductive technologies This advanced level reference work will prove invaluable to legal practitioners, scholars, students and researchers in the disciplines of law, medicine, genetics, dentistry, theology, and medical ethics.

"Philosophy offers a means of unpacking and grappling with important questions and issues relevant to nursing practice, research, scholarship, and education. By engaging in these discussions, this Handbook provides a gateway to new understandings of nursing. International in scope, this volume provides a vital reference for all those interested in thinking about nursing, whether students, practitioners, researchers, or educators"--

The Routledge Handbook of Well-Being explores diverse conceptualisations of well-being, providing an overview of key issues and drawing attention to current debates and critiques. Taken as a whole, this important work offers new clarification of the widely used notion of well-being, focusing particularly on experiential perspectives. Bringing together leading authors from around the world, Routledge Handbook of Well-Being reflects on: What it is that is experienced by humans that can be called well-being. What we know about how to understand it. How well-being is manifested in human endeavours through a wide range of disciplines, including the arts. This comprehensive reference work will provide an authoritative overview for students, practitioners, researchers and policy makers working in or concerned with well-being, health, illness and the relation between all three across a range of disciplines, from sociology, healthcare and economics to philosophy and the creative arts.

In the last three decades, the human body has gained increasing prominence in contemporary political debates, and it has become a central topic of modern social sciences and humanities. Modern technologies – such as organ transplants, stem-cell research, nanotechnology, cosmetic surgery and cryonics – have changed how we think about the body. In this collection of thirty original essays by leading figures in the field, these issues are explored across a number of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, including pragmatism, feminism, queer theory, post-modernism, post-humanism, cultural sociology, philosophy and anthropology. A wide range of case studies, which include cosmetics, diet, organ transplants, racial bodies, masculinity and sexuality, eating disorders, religion and the sacred body, and disability, are used to appraise these different perspectives. In addition, this Handbook explores various epistemological approaches to the basic question: what is a body? It also offers a strongly themed range of chapters on empirical topics that are organized around religion, medicine, gender, technology and consumption. It also contributes to the debate over the globalization of the body: how have military technology, modern medicine, sport and consumption led to this contemporary obsession with matters corporeal? The Handbook’s clear, direct style will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience in the social sciences, particularly for those studying medical sociology, gender studies, sports studies, disability studies, social gerontology, or the sociology of religion. It will serve to consolidate the new field of body studies.

This important text draws on decades of research, arguing that modern nursing germinated and grew an ethics from its own native soil, which is rich, fulsome, and philosophically informed, grounded in the tradition and practice of nursing. It is an ethics with a positive agenda for the good nurse, a good society, a healthy people, and human flourishing. This native nursing ethics was forgotten, creating space for a foreign bioethics’ colonization of nursing in the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing from a wide range of sources from the USA, the UK, Canada, and Ireland, the book addresses the early and enduring ethical concerns, values, and ideals of nursing as a profession that engages in direct clinical practice and in developing policy. Fowler calls for reclaiming and renewing nursing’s ethical tradition. This systematic and comprehensive book is an essential contribution for students and scholars of nursing ethics.

What kind of knowledge is medical knowledge? Can medicine be explained scientifically? Is disease a scientific concept, or do explanations of disease depend on values? What is "evidence-based" medicine? Are advances in neuroscience bringing us closer to a scientific understanding of the mind? The nature of medicine raises fundamental questions about explanation, causation, knowledge and ontology – questions that are central to philosophy as well as medicine. This book introduces the fundamental issues in philosophy of medicine for those coming to the subject for the first time, including: • understanding the physician–patient relationship: the phenomenology of the medical encounter. • Models and theories in biology and medicine: what role do theories play in medicine? Are they similar to scientific theories? • Randomised controlled trials: can scientific experiments be replicated in clinical medicine? What are the philosophical criticisms levelled at RCTs? • The concept of evidence in medical research: what do we mean by "evidence-based medicine"? Should all medicine be based on evidence? • Causation in medicine. • What do advances in neuroscience reveal about the relationship between mind and body? • Defining health and disease: are explanations of disease objective or do they depend on values? • Evolutionary medicine: what is the role of evolutionary biology in understanding medicine? Is it relevant? Extensive use of empirical examples and case studies are included throughout, including debates about smoking and cancer, the use of placebos in randomised controlled trials, controversies about PSA testing and research into the causes of HIV. This is an indispensable introduction to those teaching philosophy of medicine and philosophy of science.

Philosophers increasingly engage in practical work with other disciplines and the world at large. This volume draws together the lessons learned from this work—including philosophers’ contributions to scientific research projects, consultations on matters of policy, and expertise provided to government agencies and non-profits—on how to effectively practice philosophy. Its 22 case studies are organized into five sections: I Collaboration and Communication II Policymaking and the Public Sphere III Fieldwork in the Academy IV Fieldwork in the Professions V Changing Philosophical Practice Together, these essays provide a practical, how-to guide for doing philosophy in the field—how to find problems that can benefit from philosophical contributions, effectively collaborate with other professionals and community members, make fieldwork a positive part of a philosophical career, and anticipate and negotiate the sorts of unanticipated problems that crop up in direct public engagement. Key features: Gives specific advice on how to integrate philosophy with outside groups. Offers examples from working with the public and private sectors, community organizations, and academic groups. Provides lessons learned, often summarized at the end of chapters, for how to practice philosophy in the field.