However, from the anti-realist point-of-view, such manifestations are not enough for an individual to consider the patient alive. One can posit that the absence of the patient's ability to communicate or interact is a manifestation of death, or the state of not being alive. That is, despite the biological signs of life shown in the apparatuses, anti-realists view the patient as dead because s/he is no longer able to perform one function that humans are distinctly known to be able to accomplish excellently: the ability to communicate and/or interact with others.
The phenomenologists, meanwhile, "centered their attention on the lived experience of those persons being smiled at and touched. Since human consciousness is the only object which may be studied, it was the essential experience of patients that mattered" (130). In this philosophy of nursing, experiential relations between the nurse and the patient is considered the most important learning that a medical practitioner can have. This viewpoint also debunks the belief that nurses should be professional and clinical in their manner and treatment of patients, wherein patients are considered as "subjects" and treatments are objectively developed -- with the aid medical science. A most prevalent example of the phenomenological viewpoint as practiced...
Phenomenologists believe that caring for the patient is not an act of unprofessionalism, but rather, an act of compassion and service to the patient, as one might expect from a nurse as a medical practitioner.
Lastly, the postmodernist viewpoint argues that "rules of inquiry" should "exclude unobservable entities and bring to heel the tendency of scientists to indulge in l'esprit de systeme" (112). That is, this philosophy posits that there is no universal truth or philosophy extant, as functionalism claims itself to be the definite and infallible philosophy, stemming from its principles the field and study of science. In the view of postmodernists, there exists a multitude of truths and realities, and it is the function of the individual to "test" these truths and realities, and deem which of these truly and honestly reflects the nature of the problem or subject being studied. Thus, in the practice of nursing, a nurse can never be sure of the suitability of one viewpoint from another unless s/he tests this viewpoint vis-a-vis the other viewpoints, and judge for himself/herself, as a medical practitioner, on how well this viewpoint explains and/or illustrates a specific nursing issue or topic.
