Institutional analysis and sociopoetics: research theory and method in science and philosophy of care in nursing

Abstract

Institutional analysis is a critical theory of social forms, considered as institutional social analysis. It is based on three concepts: the instituted, the instituting, and the institutionalized. Seen as a concept, institution is a movement to transform the existing world, while institutionalization is a process, a battle that concerns all aspects of social phenomenon. Sociopoetics defends collective construction of knowledge, and transforms the act of research in a poetic event. Its basic argument is that all people have different skills, which helps to create an ethical responsibility to promote dialogicity between caring and specialized practice of nursing. Some principles that allow the operation of the hospitalary organization are instituted; they frame everyday services and self-restrict being institutionalized. When considering the physical and spiritual dimensions in the act of caring, the essence of nursing is favored in understanding the human in the human being. Thus, sociopoetics establishes a bridge towards a political and spiritual ecology, strengthening solidarity between the living and the plurality of self-management.