Problems with paradigms in a caring profession.

The terms 'paradigms' and 'paradigm shifts' entered everyday language following the publication in 1962 of Kuhn's book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn's original usage of these terms in relation to 'normal' science has since been inappropriately applied to other areas of formal knowledge. Their use in relation to nursing is conceptually flawed, and is an unnecessary distraction from the more modest, but nevertheless rigorous, approaches to the elucidation and generation of knowledge for practice which are required.