Carper’s Ways of Knowing Essay Example

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Essay Instructions

This is an individual writing assignment. For this assignment, consider Carper’s Ways of Knowing: empirical, personal, ethical, and aesthetic. For each way of knowing, describe a clinical situation including a nursing intervention you implemented while caring for a patient, family, group, or community. In your description, explain how the particular way of knowing informed the decision to implement the intervention.

Use one scholarly reference for each of your four explanations in order to provide support for your reasons that a particular intervention is an example of the selected way of knowing. Use a different reference for each of the four descriptions. Use references other than those provided in assigned course readings. APA formatting must be applied and errors in spelling and grammar must be absent; these are standard requirements for presenting scholarly, professional products. carper’s ways of knowing essay examples.

This assignment directly relates to the course objective ” Explore the development of nursing knowledge in the context of nursing science.”

Applying Carper’s Ways of Knowing to a Clinical Case

Nursing is seen as both a science and an art. Within the nursing profession, nurses must be able to play a variety of responsibilities. Meeting a patient’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs results in a holistic experience for both the patient and the nurse. Barbara Carper, a nurse, established the foundation for holistic nursing by emphasizing understanding and information in the nursing field. “In nursing, Carper’s method of knowing, empirics, esthetics, personal knowing, and ethics serve as a guide to holistic practice, teaching, and research” (Holtslander, 2008).

“Knowing is a cognitive process, and nursing is characterized by four forms of knowing: empirical, ethical, personal, and aesthetic” (Cipriano, 2007). Carper’s technique focuses on four patterns that are not separate occurrences, and when employed collectively, the patient obtains the optimum treatment. In this article, I will concentrate on Carper’s technique, present an example of her method, and identify/reflect on the circumstance in relation to her model.

Clinical Situation

One night, while charging at the emergency hospital, I met a family who was hesitant to take their mother home. Despite the fact that I was not directly engaged in the patient’s care, the patient’s main nurse expressed similar concerns to the patient’s family. I looked through the patient’s history and found that the patient had come to the emergency room with a rapid onset of shortness of breath and slight chest discomfort that the physician ruled out as being cardiac.

The emergency room doctor rejected the patient’s concerns and diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection, administering IV antibiotics and writing a prescription for oral antibiotics to take home. Although the patient was not in any immediate danger, I detected expiratory and inspiratory wheezes in her right lung, as well as reduced breath sounds in her left lung, during my examination.

The patient had a history of CHF and had just been diagnosed with COPD. During my examination, the family informed me that she had been visited earlier in the day for similar concerns, but that this incident was much worse than the first. The physician had not physically assessed the patient at this appointment but had reviewed her visit from earlier in the day, according to the patient’s nurse. I examined the patient’s last visit and noticed that her chest x-ray revealed small infiltrates in the left and right lung due to COPD, and her lab work was otherwise normal except for a BNP level of > 100 pg/mL.

I brought this information to the doctor and informed him that the patient’s symptoms had worsened and that her breath sounds in the left lung field had decreased. He didn’t appear impressed or affected by my judgment or the family’s apprehension about bringing her home. Because he was the doctor and I was simply a nurse, he instructed me to dismiss the patient. I was concerned that the patient did not fit the requirements for release, so I contacted our department manager.

The department manager voiced her concerns to the physician, who reluctantly agreed to do more tests on the patient. The patient showed deteriorating lung infiltrates, an increased WBC count, and a BNP level of 1500 pg/mL when her findings arrived. CHF, COPD exacerbation, and leukocytosis were the reasons for the patient’s admission to the hospital.

Aesthetics (Esthetics)

“Aesthetics creates a creative sense of self-awareness by providing a unique opportunity for clients and nurses to explore personal impressions of components of their reality” (Koithan, 1996). Subjective data is used by nurses to develop aesthetic knowledge. I feel the underlying issue was that the physician did not do a thorough head-to-toe examination and instead relied on past knowledge to make his judgment and diagnosis. The physician failed to examine the patient’s history or the fact that her symptoms were worse the second time she appeared, necessitating more tests and physical assessment. By detecting the patient’s fundamental and social requirements, communicating directly with the patient/family, patient’s and accepting the legitimacy of the family’s worries, nursing personnel displayed aesthetics.

Personal

“Personal knowledge pertains to how nurses see themselves and their patients” (McEwen & Mills, 2014, p. 13). Subjective data provides nurses with personal knowledge. Instead of encouraging alienation, this data encourages involvement (McEwen & Mills, 2014, p. 14). I’ve learnt not to accept anything at face value throughout my nursing profession. As a result, I became more in tune with my patients and their families. By including the patient and his or her family, I was able to draw on previous experiences and interactions to offer the patient further examination, testing, and inpatient hospital treatment.

Ethics

“Ethics refers to the nursing moral code, which is founded on a duty of service and respect for human life” (McEwen & Mills, 2014, p. 14). This patient was in need, and she was not receiving the care to which she was entitled and to which she had access. This was a personal belief that influenced my actions. Following my own personal convictions, I served as an advocate for this patient and her family. The patient’s condition plainly did not fulfill discharge standards, and I and the physician needed to take another look. The patient was able to get the treatment she required since the assessment information was reported higher than the physician’s. According to White (1995), sociopolitical knowledge enables nurses to examine commonly held beliefs about practice, the profession, and health policy (p. 84).

Empirical

“In nursing, empirical knowledge is the most stressed manner of knowing since there is a need to understand how knowledge may be arranged into rules and theories for the goal of explaining” (McEwen & Mills, 2014, p. 13). I put this information to use by assessing the patient and reviewing past labs and x-rays from her last visit utilizing nurse interventions. Further inspection of the patient led me to suspect that she did not have a simple upper respiratory infection and that further testing and evaluation was required since her symptoms had worsened upon her return. The presence of infiltrates in both lungs, as well as a high BNP level, indicated that the patient was suffering from heart failure. “This test measures brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), a cardiac hormone, and may help identify, monitor, and maybe prevent chronic heart failure” (Doust, Lehman, & Glasziou, 2006).

Conclusion

The clinical case that was reported had a lot of problems and concerns with patient care. I was able to provide the patient with the care she required by utilizing my assessment skills, studying the patient’s file, and executing nursing interventions. The patient’s growing symptoms, borderline lab levels, and chest x-ray were all easily visible concerns. The re-evaluation and reflection of this clinical case has affected my own principles and experience as a nurse, allowing me to continue to offer care for patients, advocate for patients, and care for patients in a holistic manner. By addressing each of Carper’s four basic patterns of knowing in relation to a clinical situation, I was able to apply them to a clinical scenario and better my own nursing practice. I also gained a better understanding of Carper’s four essentials and how they relate to circumstances I encounter on a regular basis.

References

Cipriano, P.F. (2007). Celebrating the art and science of nursing. American Nurse Today, 2(5). Retrieved from https://www.americannursetoday.com/celebrating-the-art-and-science-of-nurisng/.

Doust, J., Lehman, R., & Glasziou, P. (2006). The role of BNP testing in heart failure. American Family Physician, 74(11), 1893-1900. Retrieved from https://www.aafp.org/afp/2006/1201/p1893.html.

Holtslander, L.F. (2008). Ways of knowing hope: Carper’s fundamental patterns as a guide for hope research with bereaved palliative caregivers. Nursing Outlook, (56)1, 25-30. doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2007.08.001. carper’s ways of knowing essay examples

Kothian, M.S. (1996). Aesthetics in nursing practice and education. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 17(6), 529-539. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9052092.

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. (2014). Theoretical Basis for Nursing, 4th Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781469899992/.

White, J. (1995). Patterns of knowing: Review, critique, and update.  Advances in Nursing Practice, 17(4), 73-86. Retrieved form https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7625782 carper’s ways of knowing essay examples

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is Carper’s 4 ways of knowing?

Empirics, aesthetics, ethics, and personal knowledge are the four patterns that make up this taxonomy.

2. What is the aesthetic aspect of nursing?

“Aesthetics creates a creative sense of self-awareness by providing a unique opportunity for clients and nurses to explore personal impressions of components of their reality” (Koithan, 1996). Subjective data is used by nurses to develop aesthetic knowledge.

3. Can someone do my Carper’s way of knowing essay?

Yes. Feel free to contact our professionals at Elitetermpapers if you are still not confident that you can write your own Carper’s way of knowing essay using our essay guide. They will help you with your essay at an affordable fee.