An Assessment of “Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing” As a relatively new professional field that was born of a need for holistic health care performed by empathetic individuals, nursing has historically lacked a certain fundamental scientific process that defines other, more objective fields of study. Many nurses have attempted to apply models and structures to the study of nursing to remedy this deficit, as reviewed over the course of Denver School of Nursing’s Topics of Professional Nursing class. Barbara Carper, the author of “Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing,” attempts to further define the field of nursing by identifying four patterns of knowing: empirics, esthetics, ethics, and personal knowledge. This paper will review
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However, she contrasts nursing’s empirical approach with empirics in other fields in that it is both less mature in its degree of integration and organization, and also in that there are multiple conflicting concepts that attempt to contribute to nursing study (Carper, 1978).
Carper also recognizes an important change in the definition of health that may contribute to the empirical nursing process: that health status lies on a continuum and is an ever-changing phenomenon influenced by the patient’s environment, rather than defined by the previously used dichotomy of disease versus absence of disease. With regard to current developments, she perceives a shift away from reliance based solely on observation and toward a use of theory to predict and define outcomes, which she concludes is an essential factor in the empirical pattern of knowing (Carper, …show more content…
Indeed, Carper (1978) states, “one is almost led to believe that the only valid and reliable knowledge is that which is empirical, factual, objectively descriptive and generalizable” (p. 16). There is a motivation to focus on the empirical approach, rather than the more subjective esthetic approach, in an attempt to prove that nursing is a legitimate profession and to depart from nursing’s apprenticeship-based roots. Resultantly, Carper recognizes that the definition of esthetics and art must be widened into an open concept that includes nurses’ situational experiences as legitimate knowledge data sets (Carper, 1978).
In contrasting esthetics and scientific process, Carper makes a distinction between perception and recognition; perception is the process of gathering details into a comprehensive experience, while recognition is simple identification. She proposes that perception is what contributes to the esthetic quality of nursing. Finally, empathy is highlighted as a major component in esthetic nursing knowledge. Carper suggests that the more skilled at empathizing a nurse becomes, the more knowledge she will have of feasible nursing outcomes (Carper,
However, she contrasts nursing’s empirical approach with empirics in other fields in that it is both less mature in its degree of integration and organization, and also in that there are multiple conflicting concepts that attempt to contribute to nursing study (Carper, 1978).
Carper also recognizes an important change in the definition of health that may contribute to the empirical nursing process: that health status lies on a continuum and is an ever-changing phenomenon influenced by the patient’s environment, rather than defined by the previously used dichotomy of disease versus absence of disease. With regard to current developments, she perceives a shift away from reliance based solely on observation and toward a use of theory to predict and define outcomes, which she concludes is an essential factor in the empirical pattern of knowing (Carper, …show more content…
Indeed, Carper (1978) states, “one is almost led to believe that the only valid and reliable knowledge is that which is empirical, factual, objectively descriptive and generalizable” (p. 16). There is a motivation to focus on the empirical approach, rather than the more subjective esthetic approach, in an attempt to prove that nursing is a legitimate profession and to depart from nursing’s apprenticeship-based roots. Resultantly, Carper recognizes that the definition of esthetics and art must be widened into an open concept that includes nurses’ situational experiences as legitimate knowledge data sets (Carper, 1978).
In contrasting esthetics and scientific process, Carper makes a distinction between perception and recognition; perception is the process of gathering details into a comprehensive experience, while recognition is simple identification. She proposes that perception is what contributes to the esthetic quality of nursing. Finally, empathy is highlighted as a major component in esthetic nursing knowledge. Carper suggests that the more skilled at empathizing a nurse becomes, the more knowledge she will have of feasible nursing outcomes (Carper,