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.

Unsafe student clinical performance calls for a systematic approach.

Patient safety is the responsibility of both the system and the individual practitioner. Unsafe incidents are a very real possibility when nursing students are preparing for their profession. The curriculum committee of the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS) identified the need for a unified and consistent process related to students who demonstrate unsafe clinical performance. Many clinical teachers experience difficulty in identifying and making decisions related to students' unsafe performance. The authors describe the development of a systematic approach that was adopted by NEPS in June 2005 and is being used across all program years and sites. The approach provides students with a fair and just process and reflects the responsibility of the educational program to prepare graduates who will provide safe, competent care.