ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in this book. It provides an outline of the general thinking about ignorance epistemologies, sociology and pedagogies. The chapter outlines the argument that follows in the book about different aspects of ignorance, how it plays out in nursing and healthcare work, and its positive as well as its negative outcomes for nurses and other healthcare workers. The primary focus is on nursing, but in many cases what plays out for nurses is common to many other professional groups in healthcare, as relations between the structures of ignorance and its epistemologies produce nursing and other healthcare research, educational imperatives and practices in the clinic. Feminist and postcolonial scholars have long delineated how systematic obfuscation and suppression of knowledge have led to the absence of certain voices and perspectives in research, public policy, healthcare and education.
