| Along with the development of medicine, nursing has its body of knowledge. Nursing education in China has its full system from diploma to doctoral level. However, nursing is still a specialty of medicine, which impeded the development of nursing. The collegiate nursing education was resumed in 1985 after the foundation of China. Therefore, higher degree nurses were in need, especially the faculty of the schools of nursing. The specialties of the graduate nursing education were classified according to the function of nursing such as administration and education in the early time. The clinical and basic specialties were not embodied clearly. How to classify the body of nursing knowledge and set up the specialties of graduate nursing education are important tasks because they are related to the development of nursing discipline and graduate nursing education.Reasonable classification of the knowledge body of nursing is the guideline for setting up the specialties for the graduate education. The construction of nursing discipline in China needs scientific theory as a guideline. The development of nursing education should adapt to the economic and people's needs. Nursing is a practical discipline. We should put it in the social environment for the classification. The classification of the knowledge body of nursing will guide the knowledge development and theory construction, which will guide the clinical practice. This paper is a historical and literature research, which explored the development of nursing both in China and America. It is expected to have a significant meaning for the construction of nursing discipline in China.This paper consists of five parts, which are shown as follows:Part One:IntroductionFirst, the background, the meaning, the purpose of the study and related study in this area were reviewed and discussed. Second, the scheme and approaches applied in this study were described, which include literature analysis, survey, and historical research.Part Two:The necessity and possibility of nursing being set as an independent disciplineNursing has its theoretical basis to be an independent discipline. It has its own concepts frame:human being, environment, health, and nursing as well as its own body of knowledge, which indicates the difference between nursing and medicine. The frame of nursing discipline has been formed. The sub disciplines of them have their own text book and research area such as medical-surgical nursing. Nursing is changing in nursing philosophy, properties of nursing, and working arena. Nursing pays more attention to human rather than disease compared with medicine. The working arenas for nursing include others besides hospitals. The research area outreaches the scope of medicine. The increase of independent disciplines and the decrease of dependent disciplines are a natural process of the development of all the disciplines. If nursing being set as an independent discipline, higher nursing education will be developed quickly as well as the nursing discipline.Part Three The development of nursing discipline in the United StatesNursing in the United States has been developed under the notion of Nightingale in the 20th century. Before 1850, the focus of clinical nursing was caring. Nursing research came from the intuition and observation on the environment through trial and error without any systematic research. Nursing focused on diseases, which was the same as medicine. Nursing was developed quickly during World War II. But nurses were in great shortage. Clinical nursing specialization promoted graduate nursing education. Physicians needed cooperation with nurses. The nursing practice in the specialized environment of medicine stimulated the specialized nursing knowledge development. During 1950s-1960s, the focus of of nursing research was nursing education, nursing leadership, and nursing management. The first journal of nursing research in the United States was "Nursing Research" that published in 1952. Nursing research promoted the development of nursing theory. This was the theory period. Nursing was separated from medicine and paid attention to both disease and human being. During late 1970s and 1980s, nurses began to reflect on nursing concepts, scope of nursing, and proper strategies for developing nursing knowledge. Therefore, they relied on nursing philosophy to explore what nursing was. Since then, they integrated nursing education, nursing research, and clinical nursing to develop nursing knowledge. Nursing was accepted as a science, clinical practice based on certain body of knowledge, and health care knowledge. The nursing discipline was fully developed.Part Four Nursing in China after 1949Nursing in China was influenced by the notion of Florence Nightingale and developed along with the coming of missionaries. The missionaries set up hospitals and nursing schools, which laid the foundation for nursing. The foundation of the School of Nursing, Peking Union Medical College funded by the Chinese medical foundation of the United States was the beginning of the higher nursing education. Many elites graduated from it.In 1950, the first National Health Conference was held by the Ministry of Health, at which nursing education was designated as a secondary nursing education program (Zhongzhuan) at the high school level without collegiate education. During these nearly thirty years, nursing was placed subordinate to medicine, which dramatically impeded its development. The working form of nursing was functional nursing in order to finish the order of the physicians without any systematic research. During the Great Cultural Revolution, schools of nursing were suspended and nurses became physicians. Everybody could do nursing work without any training. Everything was in a chaos at that time.After the Great Cultural Revolution, market economy and open-door policies gave nurses opportunities for developing new academic programs and professional structures. Higher nursing education was resumed in 1984. In 1985, there were 11 universities setting up baccalaureate nursing programs. Master degree program and doctor degree program began in 1992 and 2004 respectively. But most of them were academic degree rather than specialty degree. Changes were made in clinical practice during the late 1970s and 1980s. Primary nursing was put forward which focused on mental health and the interrelationship between nurses and patients. Holistic nursing was another work form focused on the whole of the human being that was put forward in the 1990s. Not only was systematic quantitative research implemented, but also qualitative research, which laid the foundation for the development of nursing. During this time period, scholar development was the focus. Nursing should be put as an independent discipline that was the wish of all. At the beginning of the 21st century, the government released a document about the practice and education for clinical nursing specialization. This laid the foundation for the scientific development of nursing.Part Five Construction of nursing disciplineNursing history of China and America gave us a hand on the construction of nursing discipline in China. America relied on nursing philosophy that stands for the trend of nursing. The construction of nursing discipline could draw lessons from both China and America. However, we should consider the difference between the two countries and construct nursing discipline with Chinese characteristics.Nursing education system has been fully developed. Until 2008, there were 63 nursing schools had master degree programs,9 of them had doctoral degree programs. Most of the specialties of graduate education were nursing education, nursing administration, and clinical nursing. These were all academic degree rather than specialty degree. The names of the specialties were not formal and could not reflect the whole discipline. It is necessary to construct the nursing discipline in order to set up the specialties for the graduate education and promote the development of nursing.We should take root in nursing practice to construct nursing discipline combining the history of nursing. The construction should abide by rules of reflection, science, practice, and systemetic. Classification of nursing discipline should be made according to the object of nursing—nursing practice as well as other disciplines'methods for classification. This way would reflect the development trends of nursing and improve nursing research.The construction of nursing discipline is not a stable one. It is an open system and can be developed over time. This study is just a pilot one which will be tested by the practice.
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