Using critical realism in nursing and health research: promise and challenges.

摘要

Empirical method needs philosophy. Recognition of this continues to grow in response to the intractable nature of the most burdensome of health and social challenges. Health systems in low, middle, and high-income countries are unsustainable; global and societal inequalities are large and widening, and most research that could be used to address these and other similar trends does not influence practice and policy. Thus, in the face of such perils, critical realist philosophy has borne new and alternative ways of seeing, questioning, and researching (Pawson and Tilley 1997; Sayer 2000).The willingness of critical realists to cross philosophical, theoretical, and empirical realms reflects wider movements across academic disciplines toward working together better to generate richer conceptualizations and deeper understandings of complexity for the development of more sophisticated explanations and more effective solutions.