"The problem of the truth of what I say is a very difficult one for me; in fact, it's the central problem. That's the question I still haven't answered. And yet I make use of the most conventional methods: demonstration, or, at any rate, proof in historical matters, textual references, citation of authorities, drawing connections between texts and facts, suggesting schemes of intelligibility, offering different types of explanation. There is nothing original in what I do. From this standpoint, what I say in my books can be verified or invalidated in the same way as any other book of history "(Foucault, 1980).
Foucault's contribution to nursing science lies in the concern with the research that has not been done, which Foucault would refer to as non-observance and a "failure to reach required standards" (Gutting, 2008). Nursing practice has a tendency to provide patient care using normalization ranges- based on "normal" and "abnormal" to meet acceptable societal standards or norms, providing documentation and medical records, which categorize, average, and norm participants. Clients are further normalized through observation and examination, revealing what they know regarding the state of their health and controlling their behavior by prescribing a course of therapy to correct health-related issues.
Foucault maintained that "rather than, at least for the study of human beings, the goals of power and the goals of knowledge cannot be separated: in knowing we control and in controlling we know "(Gotting, 2008). Individuals become a number, or a member of a data set, and are labeled as a "case", and they are controlled the care provided the nurse and therapy ordered by the physician. Individuality is lost. It is, therefore, important to nursing science that clients not become faceless, numbered, anonymous beings and that nurses remember to provide a caring, healing environment to regain optimal health.
