Oral Presentation The 26th International Nursing Philosophy Conference 2023

Nietzschean politics as means of overcoming EBN’s nursing colonisation (#4)

Pawel Krol 1
  1. Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada

In this paper I will explain the knowledge to be mobilised to overcome the colonisation of nursing by EBNs from a Nietzschean analysis. From this perspective, I see EBNs as a process of colonisation – that is, a violent erasure of nursing cultures – by an authoritarian regime of truth that justifies itself on the promises of « royal science ». Indeed, in the name of economic profitability, EBNs colonise the cultural diversity of nursing practices by flattening them in the name of generalisation – thus erasing all the cultural inclusion that is omnipresent and fundamental to local, proximity and nomadic practices, assembled through our rich integration of practices experience in diverse contexts.

For Nietzsche, the task of philosophy consists in caring for cultures through a political commitment to freedom: an « emancipatory care of culture ». This political care of culture begins with a sensitivity to nihilism in our nursing practices. From a nietzschean standpoint, nihilism consists in the belief that EBN contributes to the legitimacy of nursing when, in fact, they suppress the cultural diversity of nursing practice, erasing the ethical foundations of our practice, and subordinating us to a regime of violent oppression from the « royal science ». Indeed, colonisation by EBN reifies us towards « best » practices that stem from an authoritarian regime of truth justified in the indisputable supremacy of « royal science ». So, overcoming and freeing oneself from this colonisation first means locating the values that engender the processes of dilution, erasure and violence of minorities, local, nomadic, and complex cultural practices. This first step in the genealogy of colonisation consists in identifying the hierarchy of values that structures and perpetuates colonisation. Then, we must free ourselves from this regime of values by powerfully affirming values specific to the various cultures of nursing practice. Here, we reinterpret our values, our history, and our cultures in the light of politics of resistance aiming at freedom and overcoming by assembling with actors, places, times, and values that allow our emancipation. Parallelly, nomadism will contribute to escape capture by the EBN but also to come together with other entities in the fights for freedom and the affirmation of diversity and inclusion which have been enhanced by our increasingly open societies. Finally, it is above all to develop and mobilise knowledge for resistance and mobilisation aimed at asserting our diversity in the face of fascist oppression – colonisation –  that undermines the rich cultural practices o­f nurses.