[Various necessary steps in clarification of relationships between health care science, medical science and nursing science]. / Några nödvändiga steg i precisering av relationen mellan vårdvetenskap, medicinsk vetenskap och omvårdnadsvetenskap.

The article asserts that a scientific discipline is defined by both its object of research or knowledge (domain) and its specific or adequate method. An appropriate definition should fulfill other necessary conditions implicit in certain fundamental rules of definition, e.g., a definition should not be too narrow or too broad. It should also respect well established uses of language, in which the concept to be defined may already have a given meaning. In Scandinavia there are three words used for the Science of Health Care. "Vårdvetenskap" e.g., is used both in Sweden and Finland. In Finland it is used to convey the view that care is essential to Man, and a holistic concept of Man/Health. So demarcated, Vårdvetenskapen complements Medicine which ontologically reduces Man to biochemistry and sickness to disease. To fulfill this function the Science of health Care should be humanistic and interdisciplinary, and not purely empirico-positivistic like Medicine.