PATTERN OF KNOWING AND NURSING SCIENCE - Assignment Example

Pattern of Knowing and Nursing Science Pattern of Knowing and Nursing Science Introduction Hood discusses several patterns of knowing, including empirical, aesthetic, personal and ethical, (p. 119) which relate to our nursing practice today. Empirical knowing is referred to in the "science of nursing" (Hood, 2014, p. 116) as it emphasizes the need for nurses to pursue lifelong learning. Empirical knowing is the primary structure of the knowing. We use this everyday through data collection. I practice this type of knowing every day while giving my patients their medication, using sterile technique for their treatment to reduce infection for instance.

Aesthetic knowing is “knowing that connects with deep meanings of a situation and calls forth inner creative resources that transform experience” (Hood, 2014, p.116). It is considered the knowing of feelings. This is where you build a sense of trust with family members and the patient. For examples, last week I was assigned a patient whose family members, I was told, would be difficult. I went into the room and explained everything that was going to be done to the patient. I also involved them in the care and educated them about the patient’s situation while interacting with them and giving them a sense of belonging so that I could gain their trust.

There is also personal knowing, which I believe comes hand in hand with the aesthetic part of knowing. Once that connection is established, personal knowledge will come easily— the building of a patient-nurse relationship, the formation of trust, that solid foundation that is truly essential in accomplishing the desired outcomes. According to Hood (2014, p. 117), “The individual must be open to experience and intuitive feelings, be honest with their self, and make efforts to acknowledge the response of others.

” Sometime ill people simply need someone to listen and some affection. For example, I had a very anxious patient to take care of and her heart rate rose to 130. I went into her room, sat and talked to her for 30 minutes. After we laughed and I gave her a hug, she was fine. With this being said understanding and appreciating the ways of knowing develops and enhances your nursing practices, making you a better nurse. We are able to see different things from different points of view. Using the ways of knowing in practice and delivery of care can change a lot of lives and increase customer service for our patients.

According to Hood (2014, p. 117), “The individual must be open to experience and intuitive feelings, be honest with self, and make efforts to acknowledge the response of others.” Again, this requires more nurses (considering the low nurse to patient ratio) to have enough face-time with patients and not just spending the majority of their time documenting or passing medications for multiple patients. “Personal knowledge is of extreme importance to all areas of our practice and it is difficult to envisage the development of the practice without this essential element.

For example, in specific clinical situations such as caring for a patient who is dying, personal knowledge is implicit in everything that we do for that patient. Our care is enhanced by self-awareness and the ability to realize and recognize our own mortality. It is true that our personal knowledge will have been strengthened by empirical knowledge gathered from the literature available on death and dying, and augmented through analysis of information from a range of disciplines; however, it is the personal knowledge and opportunity to reflect upon personal feelings which, although not always directly communicable to others, enables the nurse to recognize the most personal aspects of that situation and respond to the needs of that dying patient.

" (Berragan, 1998).Historically, nursing accepted the superiority of science and scientific methods of validating knowledge; however, we have now begun to realize that there are a variety of ways in which we can acquire knowledge and that fundamental to these sources is the notion of unity between the knower and what is known. A hierarchical distinction between ways of knowing such as that proposed by Kerlinger (1973) is not particularly useful as an approach to developing nursing knowledge. This view attempts to place science in a superior position to other sources of knowledge, and overlooks certain forms of knowing due to their incompatibility with scientific views, despite their obvious value and necessity for nursing.

" (Berragan, 1998) These ways of knowing shows us a great increase and improvement in health care setting and in delivering of patient care.ReferencesHood, L. J. (2014). Conceptual Bases of Professional Nursing: patterns of knowing and nursing science. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Berragan, L. (1998), Nursing practice draws upon several different ways of knowing. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 7(3): 209–217. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2702.1998.00146.x