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Narsolohiya: Filipino Nursing Knowledge Lab, 2401 Taft Avenue, Malate, Manila (2026)

12/09/2026

Join us for the Presentation of the National Nursing Research Agenda: Shaping the Future of Nursing Research in the Philippines.

This national conversation will bring together nurse researchers, educators, leaders, practitioners, graduate students, and healthcare stakeholders to help advance a more relevant, responsive, and unified direction for nursing research in our country.

📅 September 25, 2026
⏰ 1:00–3:00 PM
💻 Via Zoom
✅ Registration is free!

Register here:
https://forms.gle/LF8rNQXzaVYk3Kkm8

Let us work together in shaping the future of Philippine nursing through research that responds to the needs of our profession, healthcare system, and communities.

10/09/2026

HOW HAVE NURSING RESEARCH DEFINITIONS RESPONDED TO THESE EVOLVING VALUES?

Definitions of nursing research tell us what kinds of knowledge the profession considers worth producing. Current definitions strongly value scientific rigor, systematic inquiry, trustworthy evidence, and professional relevance. They describe research as a way to generate or validate knowledge, study nursing phenomena, and improve evidence-based care.

These commitments remain important. But when compared with the wider values expressed in the 2025 ICN definition of nursing, some gaps become visible.

Current research definitions say little about social justice, advocacy, planetary health, or transformative action. They also tend to describe research through terms such as “scientific,” “systematic,” and “objective.” These words can suggest that good research should be value-neutral and primarily empirical.

Nursing’s newer commitments invite a broader view. Research can still be rigorous while also asking who experiences injustice, what structures produce poor health, whose knowledge is ignored, and how inquiry can support social change.

This has clear implications for decolonizing nursing. Research definitions should create room for critical, participatory, Indigenous, and decolonial approaches alongside established scientific traditions. Expanding what counts as legitimate inquiry can help nursing take local knowledge, cultural context, and marginalized voices more seriously.

As nursing’s values evolve, the values guiding nursing research need to evolve with them.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

08/09/2026

WHAT DO VALUES HAVE TO DO WITH NURSING RESEARCH?

Research is never completely separate from values. The questions we choose to ask, the methods we trust, and the kind of knowledge we hope to produce are shaped by what we believe is important. This is where axiology comes in. Axiology refers to values: what we consider good, right, useful, or worth pursuing. Different research paradigms carry different value commitments.

A positivist or post-positivist approach often values objectivity, measurement, and generalizability. It asks whether patterns can be tested and applied more broadly.

An interpretive approach gives greater attention to lived experience, meaning, and context. It asks how people understand health, illness, care, and everyday life.

A critical or emancipatory approach places social justice, power, and transformation at the center. It asks who benefits, who is excluded, and how research might help challenge unfair structures.
These differences shape what researchers notice, whose voices they include, and what they hope their findings will accomplish.

For decolonizing nursing, this calls for greater awareness of the values built into our research traditions. It also creates space for local, Indigenous, and Global South ways of knowing to shape research questions, methods, and standards of meaningful evidence.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

06/09/2026

HOW DID NURSING’S VALUES EVOLVE THROUGH ITS CHANGING DEFINITIONS?

Nursing’s values did not stay the same across time. As nursing definitions changed, the profession’s sense of purpose also widened.

In the 1950s, nursing was largely defined around helping individuals, especially in relation to illness, recovery, and self-care. The focus was close to the bedside. Compassion and assistance were central.
Later definitions began to broaden that picture. By 1987 and 2002, nursing was no longer seen only as direct care. It was also linked to health promotion, prevention, research, advocacy, and policy. Nursing started to claim a stronger professional voice and a more autonomous role in health systems.

The 2025 ICN definition pushes that shift further. Nursing is now framed as active, agentic, and globally responsible. Its values extend from individual care to families, communities, global humanity, and even the planet. It moves from reactive care to proactive transformation. It deepens ethical responsibility through equity, cultural safety, and social justice. And it presents nurses as leaders who act, advocate, manage, and help shape systems.

For decolonizing nursing, this wider value horizon creates an opening. It helps challenge narrow, inherited definitions of nursing and invites the profession to take local histories, cultural realities, and marginalized ways of knowing more seriously. Decolonizing nursing means making sure these expanded values are lived in practice, education, and knowledge production.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

03/09/2026

WHAT ARE SOME TEXTUAL/DISCURSIVE FEATURES OF THE 2025 ICN DEFINITION?

The 2025 ICN definition does more than describe nursing. Its language actively constructs what nursing is expected to become.

First, look at transitivity, or how action is assigned in the text. “Nursing” repeatedly appears as an active actor. It acts, advocates, promotes, protects, manages, and leads. These verbs present nursing as a profession with agency and responsibility across clinical care, health systems, social justice, and planetary health.

Second, the definition uses strong modality. Statements such as “Nursing is…” and “Nursing is committed to…” are direct and confident. There is little hedging. The values expressed are framed as core professional commitments rather than optional goals.

Third, the definition brings together several wider discourses. These include human rights, social justice, people-centered care, evidence-based practice, leadership, decoloniality, and sustainability. It also reflects wider global conversations shaped by the WHO, UN Sustainable Development Goals, climate action, and critical health movements.

From a decolonial perspective, this language creates useful openings. Ideas such as cultural safety, and equity can help challenge older assumptions about whose knowledge and experiences count in nursing. However, these commitments also need to change education, research, leadership, and everyday practice.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

01/09/2026

WHAT ARE THE VALUE COMMITMENTS OF THE ICN 2025 DEFINITION?

The 2025 ICN definition of nursing carries a broader set of values for the profession. Four themes stand out.
First, health as a universal right and equitable access. Nursing is asked to support social justice, human rights, and fair access to care. This places nurses within wider efforts to address the social conditions that produce health inequality.

Second, people-centered, collaborative, and safe care. The definition gives strong attention to trust, cultural safety, relational care, and respect for people’s lived experiences.

Third, global responsibility and environmental stewardship. Nursing’s ethical reach now extends to planetary health, sustainability, and the well-being of future generations.

Fourth, professional authority and transformative leadership. Nurses are described as knowledgeable, capable, and responsible for advocacy, leadership, and system change.

Together, these themes suggest a re-centered nursing axiology. Nursing is being asked to care for persons, communities, systems, and the planet while taking a more active role in justice and transformation.

There is also a decolonial opening here. Commitments to cultural safety, equity, and social justice can support the centering of Indigenous, Global South, and other marginalized knowledges. But these values will only become decolonial if institutions also change whose knowledge, voices, and leadership are treated as legitimate.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

30/08/2026

HOW CAN WE UNPACK THIS 2025 ICN DEFINITION OF “NURSING”?

A new definition should not just be accepted at face value. It should also be read critically. Words matter. Definitions carry values, assumptions, and power. They help shape what nursing is expected to be, do, and prioritize.

The approach: This inquiry uses a critical inquiry paradigm. That means it treats knowledge as political, not neutral. It asks what the text highlights, what it leaves out, and whose interests or values it may support.

The main method is retroductive analysis. In simple terms, this means moving from the visible surface of the definition to the deeper ideas and structures underneath it. To do that, the analysis uses tools from **critical discourse analysis.

The main text being examined is the 2025 ICN definition of nursing. It is also read alongside the ICN report, older nursing definitions, definitions of nursing research, and other relevant global documents.

Five questions guide the reading:

1. What words are chosen?
2. Who is given agency and responsibility?
3. What duties or expectations are expressed?
4. What view of nursing is being constructed?
5. How does it connect with earlier definitions and wider global texts?

This can help us see whether the new definition marks a real shift in nursing’s values, or simply repackages older ones.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

27/08/2026

HOW DID THE AXIOLOGY OF NURSING EVOLVE?

Axiology is the study of values: what we consider good, right, and worth pursuing. In nursing, axiology helps explain what the profession stands for, what it prioritizes, and how it decides what good care should look like.

These values have changed over time.

Early nursing placed strong emphasis on virtue and care. Values such as compassion, altruism, loyalty, and obedience were central. Nursing was often practiced within strict institutional hierarchies, where duty and service shaped professional identity.

By the mid-20th century, nursing became more professionalized and more closely linked with universities and science. Evidence, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice became more visible in nursing ethics. Bioethics also influenced how nurses understood decision-making and patient rights.

Today, nursing faces a much wider ethical landscape. Digital health, artificial intelligence, robotics, climate change, migration, and health inequities raise new questions about privacy, autonomy, fairness, cultural safety, and global responsibility.

So nursing values are not frozen in time. They develop as society, technology, and health systems change.

Some values, such as compassion and care, remain important. But their meaning and application continue to expand. Understanding nursing axiology helps us see that professional identity is always shaped by the values we choose to carry forward.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

25/08/2026

A NEW ICN DEFINITION OF NURSING IN 2025

The new ICN definition of nursing, released in June 2025, is more than a wording update. It is a signal that nursing is a living profession that changes with the world it serves. How a profession defines itself shapes practice, education, ethics, policy, research, and even how the public understands its role. A definition works like a compass. It tells us what nursing is for, what it values, and what kinds of work it should prioritize.

This new definition seems to point toward a wider moral horizon. It asks nursing to respond more seriously to today’s social and global challenges. That means revisiting old assumptions, research agendas, and institutional routines. It also means asking whether our policies, curricula, and structures still fit the profession we say we want to be.

This is also where decolonizing nursing enters the conversation. If nursing is being redefined, we should ask: whose voices, histories, and knowledges are being centered? A more just definition of nursing should make room for perspectives from the Global South, Indigenous traditions, and local ways of caring that have long been pushed aside. Change will not be easy. But this moment gives nursing a real chance to become more inclusive, honest, and globally accountable.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

23/08/2026

Our next series of posts will explore the 2025 research article entitled, "An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition." In this critical discursive paper, the author reflects on the evolving values of the nursing profession through an analysis of current and older official definitions. These posts will also explore the implications of these changing professional values, priorities, and discourses to the decolonial project of nursing.

Sources:

Cleofas, J. V. (2026). An axiological (re) appraisal of nursing in the light of the 2025 ICN definition: Implications for research development in doctoral education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82(5), 4442-4458. DOI:10.1111/jan.70176

White, J., M. Gunn, M. Chiarella, H. Catton, and D. Stewart. (2025). “Renewing the Definitions of ‘Nursing’ and ‘a Nurse’.” Final Project Report, International Council of Nurses

Images generated via Google AI

Narsolohiya: Filipino Nursing Knowledge Lab

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