Multiple patterns of knowing, including empirics, ethics, aesthetics and personal knowing are identified in the profession of nursing. Personal knowing addresses knowledge of ourselves and the self of others. Aesthetic knowing is the art of nursing, and is the component which fosters the creative expression of nursing practice. Poetry, as an aesthetic expression of nursing practice, affords the opportunity to deepen personal knowing through the examination of nurse-patient interactions. It provides a framework for self-reflection related to significant clinical perceptions, and facilitates reconstruction of these perceptions into a nursing experience unique to the individual practitioner.
This exemplar presents the use of poetry in a psychiatric clinical rotation for senior students in a baccalaureate nursing program. The art and science of nursing merged as students approached their clinical requirements using both right and left sides of their brains. This experience enhanced their understanding of holistic communication, provided them with an opportunity to grow as reflective practitioners, and facilitated expression of nurse-patient connectedness through an aesthetic modality.
Significance to practice is the personal and professional growth experienced by the students. Educational significance is demonstrated by the use of this aesthetic modality as a component in the educative process assisting students to find another writing “voice” as a professional writing tool. The chronically mentally ill patients provided opportunities to engage in diverse nursing relationships heretofore not experienced by the students. Scholarly merit includes the creation of a publication to showcase the students’ creative efforts.
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