Carper's Nursing Theory

I define my philosophy of nursing within the three nursing domains of person, health, and environment. My goal is to communicate the importance of nursing as a knowledge-based career, depending not only on the nurse fulfilling her role but also on the patient’s compliance. A patient must learn to provide self-care at home in the same capacity as the nurse would provide care in the clinical setting. I discuss various subjects within nursing. I explain why I want to be a nurse, what I believe a nurse’s role is, the different domains of nursing, and where I believe nursing will be in the future. My philosophy demonstrates the interdependence of the nursing domains. You cannot fully evaluate a person without evaluating their health,

I am a recent baccalaureate graduate of Charleston Southern University. I received my Bachelor of Science in Nursing in May of 2015. On June 20, 2015, I received my NCLEX-RN results and became a registered nurse in the state of South Carolina. After considering my options for a graduate program, I happily accepted my offer from Case Western Reserve University and moved to Cleveland to pursue my graduate studies. Over the course of my undergraduate career, theories were included in the curriculum but not in depth. It is for this reason that I am excited to partake in this course – to learn the foundational and applicable theories of the nursing profession.

Therefore, it is necessary to examine the nature of nursing and the knowledge base nurses bring to the clinical setting to define the scope of nursing practice (Berragan, 1998). To better understand nursing practice, Barbara Carper in 1978 identified four patterns of knowing nurses adopt in clinical practice. They are empiric knowing, ethical knowing, personal knowing, and aesthetic knowing.

Technological advances and genetic discoveries have increased the average individual’s life span. Today’s nurses regularly care for an aging population with a higher incidence of chronic illnesses. People are now living longer and the population is becoming more diverse creating a host of new challenges for nurses. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has created nine essentials that may be incorporated into any university curriculum to prepare nurses to provide high quality patient care. The third essential discusses the importance of scholarship for evidence-based practice. The term scholarship differs from evidence-based practice. Scholarship involves asking thought provoking questions that may have the potential to better patient outcomes, researching these questions or the topic of interest, collaborating with the healthcare team to successfully incorporate interventions, and continually performing evaluations. Evidence-based practice is vital to quality patient outcomes, may take as long as seventeen years or more to integrate into the hospital setting, is based on numerous scientific research studies, and is best fostered through scholarship. Scholarship

Patricia Benner, a well-known nursing theorist who published From Novice to Expert, theorizes how a nurse should progress through their career. Benner’s theory explains what stage of nursing one is in based on your education and the amount of time one has worked in a specific nursing field. She describes the five stages of the theory: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. While this theory has its limitations, it is beneficial to the well-being of both the nurse and patient and that is proven by real world clinical practice.

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

In today’s healthcare system, nursing is a challenging field as a result of rapid technological advances and changes in healthcare policies. As a dedicated nursing professional, with a great passion for learning, I strive to stay on top of these changes. I am determined to increase my knowledge to be an instrumental part of providing quality healthcare. The demands of nursing are high; however the rewards are even higher. Nursing requires both a supreme understanding of the science of health, and a caring bedside manner befitting only those who seek a position of such a personal involvement in the well-being of a patient. Academically, I will put forth all of

Carper (1978) identified four fundamental patterns of knowing which are (1) empirics, or the science of nursing; (2) personal knowledge; (3) esthetics, or the art of nursing; and (4) ethics, or the moral component of nursing. The purpose of this discussion is to explain how each pattern of knowing affects this author’s practice, and to identify the author’s preferred paradigm and provide justification for choosing this paradigm.

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.

I have read and understand the plagiarism policy as outline in the syllabus and the section in the Catalog relating to the IWU Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I certify that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act/s, which include expulsion from Indian Wesleyan University.

Nursing was, for my sixteen year old self, taking care of the sick. Little did I know the complexities of that definition. Still, taking care of the sick was interesting enough to make nursing my major. I started practicing nursing years ago. However, I still struggle defining and explaining my profession to others. I usually start by differentiating nursing from medicine. Nurses see patients as humans rather than a disease that needs treatment (Zaccagnini & White, 2014, p. 15). However, as I advance my career, I must actively incorporate nursing theory into my practice. Nursing theory gives a foundation to understand patients and their health problems better. The use of nursing theory provides a framework to evaluate nurses’ interventions on a higher standard (Zaccagnini & White, 2014). Kenney described five steps to follow once the decision to include nursing theory has being made. This paper will explore the process of applying the Kenney’s five steps into my practice.

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.

American Nurses Association defines nursing as “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and population”( Potter,P.,& Perry, A. 2005,1-5). Thus making nursing dynamic and ever changing. However, when nursing