Ways of Knowing

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Purpose 

The purpose of the graded collaborative discussions is to engage faculty and students in an interactive dialogue to assist the student in organizing, integrating, applying, and critically appraising knowledge regarding advanced nursing practice. Scholarly information obtained from credible sources as well as professional communication are required. Application of information to professional experiences promotes the analysis and use of principles, knowledge, and information learned and related to real-life professional situations. Meaningful dialogue among faculty and students fosters the development of a learning community as ideas, perspectives, and knowledge are shared. 

Activity Learning Outcomes 

Through this discussion, the student will demonstrate the ability to:

  • Demonstrate logical and creative thinking in the analysis and application of a theory to nursing practice. (PO 2 and 5) 
  • Examine broad theoretical concepts as foundational to advanced nursing practice roles. (PO 1 and 2) 
  • Analyze theories from nursing and relevant fields with respect to the components, relationship among the components, and application to advanced nursing practice. (PO 1) 
  1. Integration of Evidence: The student post provides support from a minimum of one scholarly in-text citation with a matching reference andassigned readings or online lessons, per discussion topic per week.
    • What is a scholarly resource? A scholarly resource is one that comes from a professional, peer-reviewed publication (e.g., journals and government reports such as those from the FDA or CDC). 
      • Contains references for sources cited 
      • Written by a professional or scholar in the field and indicates credentials of the author(s) 
      • Is no more than 5 years old for clinical or research articles 
    • What is not considered a scholarly resource?  
      • Newspaper articles and layperson literature (e.g., Readers Digest, Healthy Life Magazine, Food, and Fitness) 
      • Information from Wikipedia  or any wiki 
      • Textbooks 
      • Website homepages 
      • The weekly lesson 
      • Articles in healthcare and nursing-oriented trade magazines, such as Nursing Made Incredibly Easy and RNMagazine (Source: What is a scholarly article.docx; Created 06/09 CK/CL  Revised: 02/17/11,  09/02/11  nlh/clm) 
    • Can the lesson for the week be used as a scholarly source? 
      • Information from the weekly lesson can be cited in a posting; however, it is not to be the sole source used in the post. 
    • Are resources provided from CU acceptable sources (e.g., the readings for the week)? 
      • Not as a sole source within the post. The textbook and/or assigned (required) articles for the week can be used, but another outside source must be cited for full credit. Textbooks are not considered scholarly sources for the purpose of discussions. 
    • Are websites acceptable as scholarly resources for discussions? 
      • Yes, if they are documents or data cited from credible websites. Credible websites usually end in .gov or .edu; however, some .org sites that belong to professional associations (e.g., American Heart Association, National League for Nursing, American Diabetes Association) are also considered credible websites. Websites ending with .com are not to be used as scholarly resources.
  2. Professionalism in Communication: The post presents information in logical, meaningful, and understandable sequence, and is clearly relevant to the discussion topic. Grammar, spelling, and/or punctuation are accurate.

Preparing the Assignment

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. The purpose of this assignment is to reflect upon a specific practice situation and better understand the professional knowledge and insights obtained through that experience.

Criteria for Content

  1. Think of a surprising or challenging practice situation in which you felt underprepared, unprepared, or uncomfortable.
  2. Select an important nursing issue/topic that was inherent to the identified situation.
  3. Brieflyexplain the situation
  4. Identify the nursing issue inherent in the identified situation
    1. As a method of refection, use Carper’s Patterns of Knowing to analyze the situation. In your discussion, address ONE of the following Patterns of Knowing:
      1. What do you think was the underlying reason for the situation? (Esthetics)
      2. What were your thoughts and feeling in the situation? (Personal)
      3. What was one personal belief that impacted your actions? (Ethics)
      4. What evidence in nursing literature supports the nursing importance of the identified issue? (Empirical)
  5. What new insights did you gain through this reflective practice opportunity? How will this apply to your practice as a nurse practitioner? Be sure to use scholarly literature to support your position.

Must be 300-350 words 

Once you are down with the initial post complete a 1-2 paragraph reflection

Write 1-2 paragraphs reflecting on ways of knowing and the use of metaparadigm in the NP role. Then save the reflection as a Word Document for submission later in the course. In week 8, you will submit all reflections as a single document.
This reflection is worth 5 points and the final reflection document in week 8 is worth 15 points.

You will need to post your reflection here before you are able to see other students’ posts.

  • Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives.
  • What do you value most about your learning this week?
  • What else about the weekly topics do you need to explore to further grow as a future NP? 

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Polifroni, E. C. (2015). Philosophy of science: An introduction. In J. B. Butts & K. L. Rich (Ed.), Philosophies and theories for advanced nursing practice(2nd ed.) (pp. 3-18). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Parker, M. E., & Smith, M. C. (2015). Nursing theories and nursing practice (4th ed.). F. A. Davis Company.

Reed, P. G., & Crawford Shearer, N. B. (2012). Perspectives on nursing theory (6th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Shearer, J. E. (2015). Critique of nursing as caring theory: Aesthetic knowing and caring in online learning. International Journal for Human Caring, 19(2), 45-49. https://doi.org/10.20467/1091-5710-19.2.45

Walker, L. O., & Avant, K. C. (2011). Strategies for theory construction in nursing (5th ed.). Pearson