Ways of Knowing as a Framework for Developing Reflective Practice among Nursing Students

Abstract Background:Nursing students face the challenge of developing a comprehensive understanding of the complex role of the registered nurse across various clinical settings. Frameworks such as the "ways of knowing", help students conceptualize and critically reflect upon important processes in their professional learning. However, the academic language used to describe frameworks can be challenging.

Purpose: This manuscript has two purposes. First, to briefly describe the historical climate influencing the development of nursing as a discipline. Second, two clinical practicum scenarios in acute care and community-based care are explored with the application of Carper's four fundamental ways of knowing in nursing (empirical, aesthetic, self-knowledge, ethical), and Chinn and Kramer's fifth, emancipatory, knowing as foundational to developing reflexivity in clinical practice.

Conclusion: These practical descriptions and concrete examples can assist students in incorporating the five ways of knowing into their reflective practice and thereby more fully develop their construct of nursing.