Intuition--a problematic form of knowledge in nursing.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the concept and phenomenon of intuition in nursing. With an overview of theories of intuition in philosophy and empirical research as the starting point, the authors discuss the conceptualization of intuition in nursing. Concept analyses, intuition as phenomenological nursing knowledge, intuition as clinical knowledge and intuition as spiritual connection are discussed. The authors conclude that the conceptions of intuition in nursing differ with respect to their philosophical underpinnings and that it can be questioned whether 'intuition' is always a proper term for the kind of knowledge investigated. Intuition is seen as an important concept in nursing, but there are still philosophical as well as empirical and practical problems to investigate.