Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part One: The nursing discipline and the development of nursing knowledge --
Chapter 1 --
Values-based practice and evidence-based care: pursuing fundamental questions in nursing philosophy and theory / William K. Cody --
Chapter 2 --
Structuring nursing knowledge: a priority for creating nursing's future / Rozella M. Schlotfeldt --
Chapter 3 --
Fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing / Barbara A. Carper --
Chapter 4 --
The state of nursing science: hallmarks of the 20th and 21st centuries / Jacqueline Fawcett --
Chapter 5 --
What constitutes nursing science? / John R. Phillips --
Chapter 6 --
Nursing theory-guided practice: what it is and what it is not / William K. Cody --
Chapter 7 --
A practice discipline that's here and now / Merian C. Litchfield and Helga Jónsdóttir. Part Two: Conceptualizations of human beings, health, environment, and nursing practice --
Chapter 8 --
Nursing: the ontology of the discipline / Pamela G. Reed --
Chapter 9 --
Philosophical position on nature of human beings foundational to Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory / Barbara E. Banfield --
Chapter 10 --
Reframing outcomes: enhancing personhood / Anne Boykin and Savina Schoenhofer --
Chapter 11 --
Expressing health through lifestyle patterns / Nola J. Pender --
Chapter 12 --
Healing as appreciating wholeness / W. Richard Cowling, III --
Chapter 13 --
Thinking upstream: nurturing a conceptual understanding of the societal context of health behavior / Patricia G. Butterfield --
Chapter 14 --
Environmental paradigms: moving toward an ecocentric perspective / Dorothy Kleffel --
Chapter 15 --
Nursing science: the transformation of practice / Rosemarie Rizzo Parse --
Chapter 16 --
A dialectical examination of nursing art / Joy L. Johnson --
Chapter 17 --
A conceptual framework for person-centered practice with older people / Brendan McCormack --
Chapter 18 --
Relational practice and nursing obligations / Gweneth H. Doane and Colleen Varcoe. Part Three: Contemporary perspectives on nursing --
Chapter 19 --
Nursing knowledge and human science: ontological and epistemological considerations / Gail J. Mitchell and William K. Cody --
Chapter 20 --
Professionalism and the evolution of nursing as a discipline: a feminist perspective / Judith Wuest --
Chapter 21 --
Rapture and suffering with technology in nursing / Rozzano C. Locsin and Marguerite J. Purnell --
Chapter 22 --
Exploring an alternative metaphor for nursing : relinquishing military images and language / Gail J. Mitchell, Mary Ferguson-Paré, and Joy Richards --
Chapter 23 --
Nursing science in the global community / Shaké Ketefian and Richard W. Redman --
Chapter 24 --
Nursing practice with aboriginal communities: expanding world views / Othmar F. Arnold and Anne Bruce. Part Four: Interrelationships among nursing theory, research, and practice --
Chapter 25 --
Optimizing nursing care by integrating theory-driven evidence-based practice / Teri Britt Pipe --
Chapter 26 --
On nursing theories and evidence / Jacqueline Fawcett, Jean Watson, Betty Neuman, Patricia Hinton Walker, and Joyce J. Fitzpatrick --
Chapter 27 --
Evidence-based practice: critique and alternative view / Gail J. Mitchell --
Chapter 28 --
Theory-based advanced nursing practice / Janet W. Kenney --
Chapter 29 --
What will count as evidence in the year 2050? / Francelyn M. Reeder --
Chapter 30 --
An ontological view of advanced practice nursing / Cynthia Arslanian-Engoren, Frank D. Hicks, Ann L. Whall, and Donna L. Algase --
Chapter 31 --
The nurse scholar of the 21st century / Sandra Schimdt Bunkers.