Patterns of knowing and knowledge development in nursing

Medical-Nursing

Patterns of Knowing and Knowledge in Nursing

Nursing professionals apply theory in order to describe, explain, predict or prescribe nursing practice. Cultivating the development of an individual as a nurse to be socialized into the nursing profession requires the individual understand the interlocking language, concepts, relationships, structured ideas, disciplined inquiry, and outcomes of nursing practice which forms a comprehensive umbrella for multiple practice applications within the profession of nursing. Accounting for the past, present and emerging future of nursing provides the individual with the language for structuring ideas necessary for professional communication within nursing (Van Sell and Kalofissudis, n.d.).

Emancipatory knowing makes it possible for social and structural change to occur. It is the human ability to recognize social and political problems of injustice or inequity, and to realize that things could be different. In the discipline of nursing, an introductory perspective that grounds emancipatory knowing is what is commonly called critical theory. This is the concept that critical has a range of negative common meanings that are not relevant in the context of critical theory. Critical in this situation implies a deep analysis that moves beyond the surface, beyond that which is usually assumed (Chinn, Kramer, & Chinn, 2008).

The development of ethical knowledge begins with ethical knowing. Nurses, regardless of the setting they are in, bring to practice the tradition of their own moral development and understandings. With this background, nurses can reflect on their practice and begin to try and figure out what is right and what is their responsibility. This sets into motion the processes of valuing and clarifying. As this is done knowledge is developed that can be shared. Undoubtedly nursing is a profession that requires ethical knowledge in order to guide practice. "Whether a seasoned nurse or a beginning student, whether working in a high-tech intensive care environment or in a rural, isolated elementary school, the outcomes depend on the nurse's ethical knowing and morality" (Chinn, Kramer, & Chinn, 2008).

Personal knowing is the active process of becoming a whole, aware self and of knowing others as valued and whole. Personal knowing is the basis for expression of authenticity, the genuine self, which in turn is essential in a healing relationship. Personal knowing enables one to experience deeper levels of meaning in all of life's experiences, including those that are shared in interaction with others. In nursing personal knowing stems from knowing what to do and when to do it (Chinn, Kramer, & Chinn, 2008).

Aesthetic knowing in nursing is that aspect of knowing that connects with deep meanings of a situation and calls forth inner creative resources that transform experience into what is not yet real, but possible. It is the dimension of knowing that connects with human experiences that are common but expressed and experienced uniquely in each instance. It is ultimately the processes of envisioning and rehearsing nurture artistic expression (Chinn, Kramer, & Chinn, 2008).

Empiric knowledge in nursing consists of knowledge development along with highlighting the role of conceptualizing and structuring ideas into knowledge expressions such as theories and formal descriptions. Theories and formal descriptions become shared as empiric knowledge in a discipline and serve to enable scientific competence in practice (Chinn, Kramer, & Chinn, 2008).

It is thought that if knowledge within any one pattern is not critically examined and integrated within the whole of knowing, that uncritical acceptance, narrow interpretation, distortions, and partial utilization of knowledge will occur. When the patterns are used in isolation from one another, the potential for synthesis of the whole is also lost. The formal expressions of knowledge are developed by using methods of inquiry that are grounded both in discursive scholarly methods and in practice specifically designed for each pattern (Behm, Comrie, Crane, Johnson, Popkess, Verbais, Yancey, Carstens, Keene, Davis, and Durbin, n.d.).