18 Oct Roberta firmly believes that individual experiences are the source of all knowledge in the world. As a scientist, she acknowledges her role as a participant in the experiments she performs and does consider herself merely a disconnected observer of phenomenon.

Roberta firmly believes that individual experiences are the source of all knowledge in the world.  As a scientist, she acknowledges her role as a participant in the experiments she performs and does consider herself merely a disconnected observer of phenomenon.  Roberta’s views are most closely reflective of which school of scientific thought?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           Natural Science

 

b)            Human Science

 

c)            Applied Science

 

d)            Soft Science

 

Question 2          Which argument best supports the idea of nursing as a professional discipline rather than an academic discipline?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           “Nursing is an applied science.  Its practice component places an emphasis on the delivery of service by nurses rather than the development of academic knowledge.”

 

b)            “Nursing is a discipline with unique substance. It borrows very little from other disciplines and, as a result, is beyond the realm of most academic programs in the sciences that acknowledge idea sharing across disciplines.”

 

c)            “Nursing is a concept with a lengthy unofficial history. Individuals have been providing nursing care to others since the Crusades, and this professional provision of services predates formal education in the field.”

 

d)            “Nursing is a relative newcomer to advanced education. For many years, nurses were educated or trained only at a Bachelor’s level, and advanced practice therefore has its roots in the profession itself rather than in academia.”

 

Question 3          Which statement most accurately encapsulates Thomas Kuhn’s proposed philosophy of science?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           Science philosophy should address both the conceptual and empirical problems of science and serve as merely a problem-solving activity.

 

b)            Science philosophy should focus on concept clarification and concept analysis based on theory development and synthesis.

 

c)            Science philosophy should resolve conceptual problems in science without being limited to the development of theories.

 

d)            Science philosophy should examine the process of science, rather than the product of science, according to a disciplinary matrix known as a paradigm.

 

Question 4          Which is not an example of an applied science as used in health care today?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           Social work

 

b)            Psychotherapy

 

c)            Examination of care disparities

 

d)            Pathology

 

Question 5During the 1960s, why did nursing scholars heavily emphasize a focus on the theoretical development of nursing as its own, independent discipline?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           To support doctoral education for nurses that was discipline specific

 

b)            To prove that the logical positivist approach was a poor fit for the discipline

 

c)            To encourage and enhance the continued development of nursing science

 

d)            To promote research by nurses in all fields, not merely nursing science

 

Question 6          Why are natural sciences also referred to as “pure” sciences?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           They are considered stand-alone bodies of unique knowledge.

 

b)            They are the only sciences to which the scientific method can be applied.

 

c)            They are the original sciences upon which all others are based.

 

d)            They are not affected by subjectivity in the way other sciences are.

 

Question 7          Historically, nursing preparation was referred to as “training,” and many nurses educated through the 1970s still use this term to refer to their education. Why is this terminology particularly problematic in light of the advances made in nursing science in the last 30 years?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           On-the-job apprenticeships are no longer as prevalent as they were up through the late 1970s and early 1980s.

 

b)            It places emphasis on nurses’ abilities to perform tasks rather than reason through and understand the purpose of their actions.

 

c)            Most modern nurses pursue Master’s level education beyond their practice-based Bachelor’s education.

 

d)            The last 30 years have seen nursing education move away from physician-taught courses in hospitals to professor-taught courses at universities. 

 

Question 8          Which statement would an adherent of the perceived view most likely make?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           “Observation is completely unbiased.”

 

b)            “Descriptive law is the gold standard of science.”

 

c)            “Individual phenomenon make up the whole that is the universe.”

 

d)            “Theories are neither right nor wrong.”

 

Question 9What is the ultimate goal of the scientific method?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           Application of scientific results to a related body of knowledge in order to meet some type of human need.

 

b)            Examination of the decisions made by a scientist to understand the ways in which subjectivity was introduced to the experiment.

 

c)            Reproducible experimental results that do not take researcher individuality into account.

 

d)            Improving the situation or process used in the experiment to yield more accurate results in repeat experiments.        

 

Question 10        Which statement best describes the role that logical positivism plays in modern philosophical thought about nursing science and science in general?

 

Question options:

 

 a)           It remains at the forefront of the understanding of science and dictates the ways in which scientific research is performed.

 

b)            It works in concert with humanistic philosophies of science, with the opposing ideologies functioning as a system of philosophical checks and balances.

 

c)            It no longer holds sway over the sciences, but its influence is so deeply ingrained in the field that it continues to impact modern ideas about science.

 

d)            It has been completely discredited by postmodern philosophers and is regarded as a flawed relic of past scientific thinking.