Editorial

EDITORIAL

Maria Itayra Padilha^I; Miriam Susskind Borenstein^II

^IPhD, Associate Professor of the Nursing Department and the Graduate Nursing Program (PEN) at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Post-Doctorat at University of Toronto,Canada. Researcher for the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) Leader of the History of Nursing and Health Care Knowledge Study Group (GEHCES)

^IIPhD, Associate Professor of the Nursing Department and PEN/UFSC. CNPq Researcher.Vice-Leader of the GEHCES

The construction of history is generally characterized as a choice, resulting from some type of information, and a good dose of motivation from the historian. Such construction depends basically on some vestiges found surrounding man. In general, when documentation is abundant, the historian has the possibility to make choices, put into evidence that which he/she considers important, and to not register that which is considered inexpressive. However, because the historian creates his/her materials, or re-creates, if you will, the historian does not amble by chance through the past as a traveler in search of findings. Rather, the historian departs with precise intentions, a problem to resolve, a working hypothesis to verify.¹

Historiographic work is found invariably in the confluence between the time of the object investigated and the time of the subject investigating. Recognizing this dated perspective leads us to seek greater comprehension of the conditionings and obstacles that, through the threat of anachronism, may come to compromise the rigor of the research. On the other hand, comprehending what an era asked with respect to another is conducive to the possibility of greater familiarity with both.² In the same manner, such concern is also part of the world of the history of nursing education, with its new manners of reflection and approaching social, cultural, scientific, and technological reality. The act of educating surpasses the limits of reproduction, covering itself in an important relationship for education. We feel challenged to explore and examine to greater depths our knowledge.

Much is said concerning interdisciplinarity, however, it has not yet been possible to formalize a concept capable of uniting epistemologists, philosophers, and educators around a consensus. And will it be necessary to have such consensus in the moment in which, according to Japiassú,³ it is verified that science or some scientific theories renounced the pretensions of totality of completeness, and that science seeks the universality of practice and not an aprioristically affirmed theory? Science already does not intend to absolutize hegemonic knowledge. In this context, science does not intend to lose sight of interdisciplinarity, but seeks the possibility of interdisciplinary dialogue, which approaches specific knowledge, based in diverse fields of knowledge, a comprehensible speech, audibleto diverse interlocutors.⁴

This edition of Text & Context Nursing Journal contemplates three pillars: history, philosophy, and education in health care and nursing. Upon such reflection, we understand the importance of intercommunication among disciplines, in a manner which complements itself and overcomes the disciplinary differences through comprehensive dialogue, since the simple exchange of information among disciplinary organizations does not constitute an interdisciplinary method. The use of the Human Sciences by Nursing orients a new outlook, with the perspective for interdisciplinarity.

In this sense, interdisciplinarity may be defined as "[...] how the art of in-depth investigation in the sense of amplification of scope may deal with the particularity and the complexity of the real at the same time".^5:88 This practice may be made possible through professional teams of specialist researchers, mediated by language, dialogue, and overcoming the surrounding disciplinarity. Nursing, when it deals with such questions, necessarily appropriates itself and approximates itself in interdisciplinary territories, not limited to that of the historian, but of the pedagogue, socialist, psychologist, and philosopher, merely to mention a few. Without these, it would not be possible to comprehend the processes through which the nursing profession has been constructed. Each discipline carries its own particularities and looks at itself via interdisciplinary bridges, as a kaleidoscope of innumerous facets. Knowledge is free, and looking at the same knowledge is impregnated from disciplinary life experiences.

Without a doubt, this edition of Text & Context Nursing Journal considers teh possibility of interdisciplinarity among history, philosophy, and education in order to consider health care and nursing. For it is through such interdisciplinarity that it becomes possible to aggregate an ample field of knowledge, keeping a more ample edition as the final product, maintaining theoretical consistency among different meanings and perceptions, supplying greater comprehension towards the profession and identity for the professionals who enact with it.

REFERENCES

• Padilha MI, Borenstein MS. Historia da Enfermagem: ensino, pesquisa e interdisciplinaridade. Esc Anna Nery Rev Enferm. 2006 Dez; 10(3):532-8.
• Burke P. A escrita da história. Novas perspectivas. São Paulo (SP): UNESP; 2001.
• Japiassú H. Interdisciplinaridade e patologia do saber. Rio de Janeiro (RJ): Imago; 1982.
• Alves R, Brasileiro MC, Brito S. Interdisciplinaridade: um conceito em construção. Episteme. 2004 Jul-Dez; (19):139-48.
• Demo P. Conhecimento moderno: sobre ética e intervenção do conhecimento. Petrópolis (RJ): Vozes; 2001.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Mar 2010
• Date of issue
  Dec 2009