According To Carper's Lack Of Knowledge In Nursing

Studies have shown that many factors have been contributing to influence patient’s care in an ethical manner. What factors could affects one decision for their medical care? Does it also included the nurse’s individual views or should consider their moral obligations? But what is ethics really is? Based on the book Nursing Ethics by Butts & Rich, “Ethics is a systematic approach to understand, analyze, and distinguish matters of right and wrong, good and bad, and admirable and deplorable as they relate to the well-being”. Ethics should follow the current AMA guidelines.

For centuries the development of nursing knowledge has been influenced by numerous theorists and their respective theories. These theories have influenced, and continue to influence, nursing education, practice and research. (Johnson & Webber, 2005)

The topic of ethics is prevalent in health care and addresses a broad range of topics in nursing. In almost every interaction with a patient there could be a situation that may bring up the question of ethics. Fortunately, there is the realization that placing the nurse in the care of a patient, may put the medical personnel in an environment where the ethics are questioned. There are whole departments dedicated to advising nurses in these situations. There are also ethic committees to help guide you when you find yourself in a situation that may question your practice or circumstances.

The knowing addresses how nurses understand the knowledge. The doing of nursing entails the actions of nurses, bringing both knowledge and practice together (Butts and Rich, 2015). The four patterns of knowing, developed by Carper, include empirics. ethics, aesthetics, and personal knowledge. Empirical knowledge is the scientific aspect of knowing. It is based on general knowledge, and usually shared with other disciplines such sociologists and psychologists. Ethical knowledge involves morals and judgement. This is used when determining right or good acts in nursing practice, ensuring that the best decision is made and is right for the patient. Aesthetic knowledge, the art aspect of nursing, involve of the nurse’s understanding and acknowledgment of other’s living experiences. Showing empathy and respect to patients as they experience their life’s journey. Personal knowledge entails self-awareness and others, and interpersonal skills. These four patterns of knowing shows that nursing practice consist of holistic patient care, and not being solely scientific

According to Carper, one pattern described in the pattern of knowing is aesthetics. Aesthetics is essentially empathy, or having the capacity to understand what another person is experiencing (Carper, 1978). Aesthetics is purely subjective, exclusive, and open to interpretation. “Aesthetics require from the nurse to be fully engaged in the moment of the experience and interpret a client situation all at once by elucidating the meaning of the process and looking beyond the situation to focus on what might be (envisioning), so as to act according to what has been envisioned (Mantzorou & Mastrogiannis, 2011, p. 253). In essence, aesthetics is the process of nursing that involves caring for our

Moreover, an emphasis is imposed on the rights of a single patient to commit an act or decision even though it is in contrast with the views of the others. In regards to the ethical dilemma, a nurse could not justify the morality of the two possible choices based on their results and consequences. The Deontological approach would encourage the health care staff as well as the patient to ask themselves the most righteous choice for their situation. With this in mind, a combination of ethical theories can also be employed to give light to the dilemma. In view of this, another ethical approach could be applied to solve the issue, and this is the Right-based approach. This theory also aim to promote the rights of every person, and that, they are indispensable just to make ends meet. However, not all ethical theories can be incorporated in every dilemma in a health care setting because their foundations would contradict one another. In order to provide an effective and efficient solution, nurses should be knowledgeable of the principles enveloping each of the ethical theories and should be wise to apply them in appropriate issues and

This paper explores Carper’s four fundamental ways of knowing, including its relationship and application to nursing theory. Carper (1978) identifies four ways of knowing as empirical, personal, ethical, and aesthetic. Each is individually important to nursing, but cannot adequately address the fundamental principles of nursing alone. This paper examines each pattern as expressed herein and ensures that all the relevant areas of nursing are attended to in the most professional, competent, and ethical manner.

In the nursing profession we are able to use multiple ways of knowing. We may not use them all at the same time and some more than the others, but we do use them. “Four fundamental patterns of knowing have been identified from an analysis of the conceptual and syntactical structure of nursing knowledge” (Reed & Crawford Shearer, 2012, p. 200). The four patterns of knowing include: empirical, esthetics, personal, and ethical.

There are nine provisions included in the ANA code of ethics. The provisions can be broken into three categories. The first category is the nurse’s ethical responsibilities to her patient which is provisions one through three. Second is the nurse’s obligation to herself, provisions four through six. The third ethical requirement for nurses is related to their relationship to the nursing profession, community, nation, and world overall. This focus is summarized in provisions seven through nine [ (American Nurses Association, 2013) ].

Throughout the development of theory in the discipline of nursing there are concepts of knowledge that are fundamental. Four of these patterns of knowing were first explored by Carper (1978) which included: empirical knowing, ethical knowing, personal knowing, and aesthetic knowing. Later, an additional facet was added by Chinn and Kramer (2008) which introduced emancipitory knowing. While all of these forms of knowledge are critical for holistic nursing care, this paper will place an emphasis on personal knowledge and how it contributes to the development of knowledge within nursing and the roles of advanced care practitioners.

Empirics is known as the science of nursing. According to Rogers (1988) nursing science gives direction to the further generation of nursing knowledge, and it is nursing science that provides the knowledge for all aspects of nursing.  “Empirical knowing by is factual, descriptive, and ultimately aimed at developing abstract and theoretical explanations” (Carper, 1978, p 25). Empirics as a pattern of knowing is grounded in Science and other empirically base methodologies (Themes, 2016).

Carper's Way of Knowing- In 1978, Barbara Carper, Professor of Nursing at Texas Woman's University, proposed patterns of healthcare knowing in a journal article in Advances in Nursing Science. Her rationale was that there needed to be a guide that would act as a developmental tool for nurses so that they could share their experience and enhance the goals of patient management, education, and further research (Carper, 1978). Like Jean Watson's Theory of Caring, many experts in the nursing field

So I bring up this controversial topic again, about both mental and physical health and how important it is to take some time out of our crazy busy lives as nurses just to sit with our patients for a few minutes to discuss their pain. By pain, I mean both mental and physical pain. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a situation I was involved in as a nursing student in the clinical setting and how I can critically analyze this situation using Carper’s Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing (1978). This model has helped many practitioners to consider what they learn throughout reflection on their experience within a holistic way.

“Orlando emphasizes that it is crucial for nurses to share their perceptions, thoughts, and feelings so they can determine whether inferences are congruent with the patient’s need” (Alligood, 2014, p.

Carper (1979) proposed 4 different ways in which knowledge related to nursing and health care can be gained: