The Contribution of “Single-case Research” to Nursing Science

Abstract

Single-case research in nursing science has a number of benefits. First, it can provide a focused verification by retroactive reasoning from the time point when a good outcome is confirmed. In addition, it can provide hints regarding nursing practice according to situation, by describing the background of actual nursing. Finally, it can evoke the emotions of readers through narratives that describe a course of events.

These benefits help to bring to light the phronesis (practical wisdom) that is contained in the nursing prowess generated through one-time practice. Modern science places an emphasis on “nomothetic knowledge demonstrated based on empirical methods such as observation and experiments.” However, nursing requires responses to individual needs, and although it is based on scientific knowledge in practice, it creates “phronesis” through improvisatory and incidental responses. In order to build a “fruitful relationship between theory and practice,” it is necessary to retain and accumulate phronesis, and I believe that single-case research can contribute to this process.