Ways Of Knowing In Nursing Essay

Module 3 – Ways of Knowing Traditionally, four patterns or “ways of knowing” have been used in the field of nursing. These are empirical, aesthetic, personal and ethical knowing originally identified by Barbara Carper in 1978. By combining these ways of knowing a nurse develops clinical knowledge which guides nursing actions in different situations. The following personal experience demonstrates the use of multiple ways of knowing in a nursing situation.
Last Friday night, I received a call from the answering service for my agency. The daughter of one of our clients had called the service to report her mother “wasn’t feeling well” and requested a nurse come to their home to check on her. The answering service had been unable to reach
Empirical knowing is the scientific form of knowing which comes from observation, testing and replications (McEwen & Ellis, 2014, p. 12). This could be observed in my instinctive understanding that the abnormal findings on initial assessment were related to symptoms associated with the patient’s diagnosis of UTI and knowledge that the medications prescribed to treat the condition would alleviate the patient’s symptoms. Aesthetic knowing, also known as the “art of nursing” involves appreciation of the meaning of a situation, knowing what to do without contemplation of the situation at hand (McEwen & Ellis, 2014, p. 13). This knowing was utilized in my instinctive grasp of the daughter’s frustration with what she perceived as lack of concern of part of the agency due to the time involved in receiving a response to her initial call and knowing just what to say and how to respond to deescalate the situation. Aesthetics was also evident in my view of the situation as a whole – the fever, tachycardia and leaking urine were symptoms of the underlying infection and could be resolved through administration of medications – remaining calm and instructing the patient and caregiver on how we were going to fix the problems instead of panicking or causing undue stress and concern. Personal knowing refers to how nurses view themselves and their patients. It is subjective in nature and incorporates personal experience and is largely expressed in personality (McEwen & Ellis, 2014, p. 15). This came from my experience with caring for a sick parent, recognizing the fear and frustration with not being able to fix it and the role confusion involved when you take care of someone who’s always been the one who took care of you. I listened and empathized with the daughter’s frustration, fear and sadness and helped her to develop knowledge and