Scholarly Dialogue Pamela G. Reed, Contributing Editor The Practice Turn in Nursing Epistemology

This column presents the perspectives of two authors, Pamela Reed and Gary Rolfe, on the topic of knowledge pro-duction in nursing practice. The articles were written independent of each other, but readers may note areas of re-markable similarity as well as differences in emphasis between the two authors. The column concludes with a dia-logue between Pamela Reed and Gary Rolfe. Nursing is a fascinating discipline. Nurses have the honor and expertise to participate closely in human healing pro-cesses of individuals, families, communi-ties, and other systems of care. Yet, because the practitioner’s expertise in healing is not fully understood, some ac-count for it by relying on concepts (like intuition, tacit knowing, and gut feelings) that render nursing knowledge more mys-tical than professional. Admittedly, ther