The cultural-cognitive-emotional-existential logic in teaching the Nursing Process within Basic Nursing: a critical review
Keywords:
nursing process, nursing education, fundamentals of nursing, pathogenic reason, critical thinking, humanized careAbstract
Background: The Nursing Process (NP) is presented across almost all nursing education worldwide as the discipline's own method and the methodological backbone of care, and it is taught early within Basic Nursing or Fundamentals of Nursing; yet the cultural-cognitive-emotional-existential logic that its teaching instals in the learner is seldom questioned.
Objective: To analyze, at the global, Ecuadorian and School of Nursing of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, Esmeraldas campus (PUCESE) levels, the logic underlying the program and curriculum of NP teaching, from the categories of pathogenic reason and cultural-cognitive-emotional-existential blindness.
Methods: A critical, argumentative, non-systematic review was conducted, combining a bibliographic mapping of PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, Redalyc, Dialnet and institutional documentary sources for the 2000-2026 period with a philosophical-hermeneutic analysis guided by the referred framework and organized at three levels: global, Ecuadorian and institutional.
Results: The NP is embedded and taught at all three levels, but it is predominantly reduced to a linear five-step algorithm, taxonomic labelling (NANDA-NIC-NOC) and a care-plan-as-document, under the inertia of a technical, neo-positivist approach. Ecuadorian evidence shows a method learned as steps to complete rather than as reasoning, with deficiencies in assessment and self-regulation. So configured, NP teaching produces blindness across the four registers —cultural, cognitive, emotional and existential— and operates in the four areas —personal, relational, institutional and social—.
Downloads
References
de Prada Justel ME. Pensar lo que nos piensa: la razón patógena cultural-cognitivo-emocional-existencial como horizonte crítico. Rev Electrón Dr Zoilo E Marinello Vidaurreta [revista en internet]. 2026 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 51(Esp): e4043. Disponible en: https://revzoilomarinello.sld.cu/index.php/zmv/article/view /4043.
Yura H, Walsh MB. The nursing process: assessing, planning, implementing, evaluating. 5ta ed. Norwalk (CT): Appleton-Century-Crofts; 1988.
Lotfi M, Zamanzadeh V, Valizadeh L, Khajehgoodari M, Ebrahimpour Rezaei M, Khalilzad MA. The implementation of the nursing process in lower-income countries: an integrative review. Nurs Open. [revista en internet]. 2020 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 7(1): 42-57. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1002/ nop2.410.
Herdman TH, Kamitsuru S, Takáo Lopes C, editores. NANDA International. Diagnósticos enfermeros: definiciones y clasificación 2021-2023. 12.a ed. Barcelona: Elsevier; 2021.
Rodríguez-Suárez CA, González-de la Torre H, Hernández-De Luis MN, Fernández-Gutiérrez DÁ, Martínez-Alberto CE, Brito-Brito PR. Effectiveness of a standardized nursing process using NANDA International, Nursing Interventions Classification and Nursing Outcome Classification terminologies: a systematic review. Healthcare (Basel). [revista en internet]. 2020 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 11(17): 2449.Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11172449.
Kozier B, Erb G. Fundamentos de enfermería: conceptos, procesos y práctica. 5.ª ed. Madrid: McGraw-Hill Interamericana; 2000.
Díaz-Rodríguez M, Alcántara Rubio L, Aguilar García D, Puertas Cristóbal E, Cano Valera M. Orientaciones formativas para un cuidado humanizado en enfermería: una revisión integrativa de la literatura. Enferm Glob. [revista en internet]. 2020 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 19(58): 640-72. Disponible en: https://doi.org/ 10.3390/healthcare11172449.
Raso A, Marchetti A, D'Angelo D, Albanesi B, Garrino L, Dimonte V, et al. The hidden curriculum in nursing education: a scoping study. Med Educ. [revista en internet]. 2019 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 53(10): 989-1002. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13911.
Andrango-Hernández SM, Flores-Alarcón JO, Chicaiza-Olivarez AC, López-Reyes SL. Habilidades del pensamiento crítico en el Proceso de Atención de Enfermería en estudiantes ecuatorianos. Rev Inf Cient. [revista en internet]. 2025 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 104: e4944. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.15305055.
Quijano A. Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina. En: Lander E, compilador. La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Buenos Aires: CLACSO; 2000. p. 201-46.
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador Sede Esmeraldas. Escuela de Enfermería: descripción de asignaturas del área de formación profesional [en línea]. Esmeraldas: PUCESE; 2023 [citado 5 Jul 2026]. Disponible en: https://aula2023s1.pucese.edu.ec/.
Freire P. Pedagogía del oprimido. Madrid: Siglo XXI; 1970.
Watson J. Nursing: the philosophy and science of caring. Ed. rev. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado; 2008.
Torres Godoy T. El cuidado humanizado de Jean Watson: una revisión bibliográfica. Rev Confluencia [revista en internet]. 2026 [citado 8 de mayo 2026]; 9(1). Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.52611/ confluencia.2026.1496.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Julia Rosa Prieto-Fuenmayor, Adrienne Alejandro Carmenate-Prieto, Marlen del Carmen Carrazana-Prieto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal provides free and immediate access to its content under the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater exchange of global knowledge. This means that the authors transfer the copyright to the journal, so that copies and distribution of the contents can be made by any means, as long as the authors' acknowledgment is maintained. These terms are a reflection that the journal assumes copyright under Creative Commons licenses, specifically under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Registration and submission of articles to the journal is free. The processing, including review, editing and publication, is completely free of charge.