There may not appear to be an obvious "specific knowledge base" in the field of nursing, but in fact there is a knowledge base in every course taken by every nurse, in every medical procedure and healthcare policy nurses are obliged to learn and practice. In every Hospice training facility, in every hospital and clinic, in every institution that specializes in cancer patient care or Alzheimer's disease, there is a specific knowledge base that nurses are in full understanding of.
             The philosophical foundations for nursing are many and varied. Every hospital and every nursing educational program has its own specific approach to its foundational underpinnings.
             One in particular that is a very well-thought-out example of a nursing foundation philosophy is available from the Department of Nursing at the Indiana - Purdue Universities at Fort Wayne (IPFW). "Nursing is an interpersonal process through which the nurse influences people toward understanding, attaining, maintaining, or regaining optimum health," the IPFW "philosophy" states.
             Notice the IPFW first emphasizes "understanding" – which implies that the nurse is obliged to help the patient understand what "optimum health" really is. There may be a situation in which the RN as a professional or a nurse in training has to visit a patient in the rural areas of Indiana; the nurse is part of a county health department outreach project in which the nurses go out and visit families to see what health concerns and health issues they may be confronted with. The first task of that nurse is of course to observe and review the health conditions of the residents of that rural family.
             But, in the meantime, the nurse's task is to help the family understand what good health practices should be. Next, that nurse must help the family "attain" a good healthy lifestyle, either through holistic practices, through medicine...