Paper
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Expert Nurses Knowledge of Effective Care for Problem Behavior in Dementia: Extraction and Analysis of Themes from Exemplar Case Studies
Ann Whall, RN, PhD, FAAN, School of Nursing, Division of Acute, Critical & Long-term Care, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA and Kader Parahoo, PhD, RN, School of Health Sciences, University of Ulster at Coleraine, Coleraine, Ireland.
Expert or experiential knowledge is defined as an iterative, thinking-in-action understanding of aspects of a phenomenon developed through continued experience with many such phenomena (Schon, 1983;1987). According to Flanagan (1947) and others, this knowledge goes beyond formal theories and educational experiences, may be partially kinesthetic in nature, and changes or transforms the expert understanding, thus going beyond theoretical knowledge. Polanyi (1969) described one difficulty with such experiential knowledge, in that we know more than we can say, or have difficulty explaining experiential knowledge. Benner (1994; 1996) has studied the nature of the experiential knowledge of Expert Nurses (EN) using a Heideggerian method that posits that expertise refines, elaborates, and disconfirms foreknowledge. In this study EN knowledge is sought concerning care of dementia patients exhibiting problematic behavior- specifically aggression during caregiving procedures. This study samples the EN themes found in such care as described by 8 EN (four in the United Kingdom/ four in the US) and their use of Implicit Memory (IM) (sometimes termed unconscious memory) to address patient problem behavior in dementia.
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Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004