What is the value of questioning?

Discussion board post for NURS608 Philosophical and Critical Foundations in Nursing, posted on May 7, 2022.

What is the value of questioning?

"[T]he philosophy of care has been considered a moral obligation as it clarifies the aim of a practical profession to pursue the human good and to understand the right way in which it should be achieved," (Rega et al., 2017).

This quotation from the article stood out to me as it effectively encapsulated the value of questioning within our discipline. It does feel like a moral obligation to wonder whether our interactions, treatments, interventions, and engagements with our patients are actually beneficial for them, and who determines that benefit. There is really no such thing as a risk-free therapy or treatment in medicine, so on a practical level nurses must always be considering some associated risk versus benefit analysis. These risks and benefits are often determined by theory and evidence-based practice, but due to the essence of humanity as unique individual experiences, we must question even that theory to ask why this is beneficial to our patient. Especially in modern Western medicine, the human element of healthcare can often get lost amid the plethora of diagnostic tools, technical advances, and high demand. In this race for speed and efficiency, we may forget to pause to question whether we should just because we can. I believe it is truly our moral duty in our profession to even question progress and development, and consider why this progress is necessary, and whether it is actually improving patient outcomes or distracting from patients' actual needs. Questioning is how we advance, but the best questioning ensures our advancements are ethical and motivated by human good.

What do you not question in nursing?

There is very little in life that I personally do not question, to be frank. I firmly believe that discussion, questioning, and debating have been the critical foundations of building every aspect of our world today. As a critical thinker, I feel a moral imperative to constantly question; not to rebel against authority, but rather to hold authority accountable and ensure morally good motivations. I find it considerably difficult to think of anything in nursing that I have not questioned at some point in my academia or career, so I come to the conclusion that what I do not question in nursing is the necessity of ongoing, constant critical thinking. Regardless of society's perceptions or governments' valuation of nursing, our profession is not simply a practical one. We do not simply perform interventions or acts that are dictated to us. Our responsibility, competency, and capacity lies in critical thinking as we are fundamental players in shaping our healthcare system, beyond the degree that we even realize at times. The most unquestionable aspect of nursing, to me, is this inherent potential of our role as significant effectors of change and influence in the healthcare system. It is realizing that potential that is proving challenging in our current era.

References

Rega, M. L., Telaretti, F., Alvaro, R., & Kangasniemi, M. (2017). Philosophical and theoretical content of the nursing discipline in academic education: A critical interpretive synthesis. Nurse Education Today (57): 74-81. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2017.07.001