NR501 Week 2 Reflective Assignment Carper’s Pattern of Knowing Reflective Essay
Fundamental Nursing Lessons Learnt from a Difficult Situation in Practice: Carper’s Pattern’s of Knowing in Nursing.
The Practical Situation Experienced
Nursing is about promoting health, preventing illness, and restoring hope. However, there are situations in which a nurse can find themselves almost helpless with regard to all the three above. A case in point is the prospect of having to reassure a patient with terminal illness by giving them hope yet you know very well that they may not have long to live.
Even more daunting is the task requiring you as the nurse to convince the patient and her relatives that they will benefit from hospice care. This is the situation I once found myself in. I was faced with this situation of a 37 year-old who had advanced ovarian cancer with a very poor prognosis. It was obvious that what she needed most in her…
Week 2 Assignment: Reflective Essay
Purpose
Nursing knowledge is classified in a variety of ways, one of which is Carper’s Patterns of Knowing (Carper, 1978). Carper’s framework offers a lens through which the nurse can reflect upon insights acquired through empirical, ethical, personal, and aesthetic knowledge (Carper, 1978).
Through intentional reflection using Carper’s Patterns of Knowing, nurses can process experiential learning and knowledge acquired through practice. This assignment aims to reflect upon a specific practice situation and better understand the professional knowledge and insights obtained through that experience.