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Chinn And Zander's Ways Of Knowing In Nursing

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Ways of Knowing in Nursing
Deanna Gerowski
Jacksonville State University

How do nurses know what to do? Most would answer that a nurse knows what to do because of the knowledge instilled in them while in school and clinical. But, it is important to refer to the question: How do nurses know? Before this discussion, I would have agreed that knowledge and knowing are the same concept; however, after reviewing Zander’s “Ways of Knowing in Nursing: The Historical Evolution of a Concept,” I agree that, although they are related, the concepts are different. Zander (2007) states knowledge precedes knowing in that it “is the general knowledge an individual possesses prior to entering a discipline such as nursing” (p. 8). Later, however, she visits the ideas of Chinn and Kramer who link knowledge and knowing oppositely stating, “ways of knowing lead to nursing knowledge, rather than knowledge being the basis for knowing in nursing” (Zander, 2007, p. 9). Whether one believes knowledge is established first, knowing establishes knowledge, or vice versa, the important point is that knowledge and knowing are not interchangeable, but separate concepts that contribute to each other. Zander (2007) cites many authors in order to conceptualize different ways of knowing. The foundation of her article is derived from Carper’s four patterns of nursing; however, she includes ideas from other authors who either expanded upon or operationalized Carper’s original work (Zander, 2007, p.

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