A critical analysis of compliance

In nursing the word compliance has competing meanings. In order to understand these meanings, nursing literature was reviewed and a critical analysis of this concept was undertaken. This included an examination of how nursing was located in relation to the historical controversy surrounding the term compliance. The philosophy that undergirds this analysis is critical theory scholarship, which focuses on language as a vehicle for social control and domination. Literature was critically analyzed according to how nurse authors define the term compliance and the historical context in which the term was used. Analysis of the literature revealed three distinct categories: evaluative, rationalization, and acceptance. Each of these categories is described and the selection criteria identified. We recommend that, nurses intent on conducting future compliance research, consider emancipatory models for their investigations.