Nursing’s Way of Knowing
Most professionals are acutely defined by the knowledge that they possess or rather ‘know’. Nurses are also not so different from other professionals. The knowledge of nursing is possessed or sought through different ways. According to Barbara Carper, there are four distinct ways of knowing. These nursing ways of knowing define how professional nursing gains, acquires or comes into possession of knowledge about the profession (Carper, 1978). The ways follow four distinct patterns that evidently form the syntactical structure and conceptual framework of nursing knowledge (Stillwell et al., 2010).
The four patterns include empirical, personal, ethical, and aesthetic knowing (Carper, 1978). The integration of the different patterns of knowing has helped the realization of the need for practice change in different perspectives of healthcare. Looking into the safety and quality of healthcare, the patterns of knowing have significantly made healthcare professionals become aware of the need for practice change by making them realize the need for safety and quality for both patients and physicians in practicing health care.
The personal experience gained from nursing largely informs the need for a safe working environment. It is a prudent practice to make the hospital environment safe for both patients and healthcare professionals. A safe environment guarantees different operations will be carried out effectively and efficiently, ensuring a faster recovery time for patients (Hughes, 2008). From the empirical point of view, one learns that objective fact and research guide professionals on what laws and theories apply in nursing. Empirically, it is evident that quality healthcare is what patients should be offered. The quality of healthcare should be as high as possible; the result of such a situation is the establishment of authentic therapeutic relationships.
Healthcare professional hold a certain moral code, which focuses on their responsibility to respect and protect human life. The moral code is defined through the ethical way of knowing as nursing is a profession that involves human life. The moral code ensures that the safety of the patient is ensured (Grol & Grimshaw, 2003). Furthermore, by holding the responsibility of respecting human life, nursing professionals are made aware of the need to provide patients with quality healthcare, which emphasizes on patients’ safety and their own.
Aesthetic knowing is considered an art in the nursing discipline. This art entails the discovery of new facts every time a certain individual comes to a new realization. Aesthetic knowing makes use of all the other ways of knowing and creates a new understanding of phenomena (Grol & Grimshaw, 2003). This type of knowing has helped in the realization of the need of safety and quality in healthcare by providing a new perspective, which educates all professional of how to achieve quality and safety when providing healthcare.
Interview
Safety and quality in the healthcare profession is a problem that is of high significance. For a particular organization to provide sufficient healthcare to their patients, safety and quality should be highly prioritized (Aase & Schibevaag, 2016). Inappropriate customer and service provider interactions are common causes of lack of safety and high quality standards in healthcare practice. Another cause of the problem is defined by the characteristics of healthcare as a product. Since healthcare is an intangible product, it becomes difficult to measure the level of service quality provided by healthcare organizations (Mosadeghrad, 2014). Moreover, the diversity of the healthcare industry also affects the quality of healthcare service through the influence of personal factors pertaining to the provider and the patient, healthcare system, healthcare organization, and the broader environment (Mosadeghrad, 2014).
There are various outcomes of addressing the lack of quality care and patient safety in a healthcare organization. One of the outcomes is the provision of quality care to patients. Another significant outcome is the realization of patient safety in the healthcare organization and the broader environment at large. Using the guidelines suggested by the University of Missouri Libraries (2017), the problem stated in the picot format will be in the following manner.
- P- The stated problem is the lack of quality care and patient safety in the provision of healthcare services, particularly to African Americans. Therefore, the main problem is the lack of appropriate mechanisms to help ensure high level of patient safety and provision of quality care
- I-The stated intervention as mention above in the problem statement involves the improvement of quality care and provision of mechanisms for patient safety in healthcare organizations through improved and appropriate customer and service provider interactions.
- C- Comparing the appropriate an inappropriate customer and service provider interactions is better in effecting quality care and patient safety in healthcare organizations.
- O- One benefit of addressing the problem stated above will be the provision of quality care to patients and the realization of patient safety in healthcare organizations.
Our PICO statement would be:
P- Hospitalized patients
I- Implementations of appropriate customer and service providers interactions.
C- Inappropriate customer and service provider interactions.
O- Patient safety and quality care.
From the PICOT above, the specific focus question is:
In hospitalized patients, how effective are appropriate versus inappropriate customer and service provider interactions at the quality of care and patient safety provision?
References
Aase, K., & Schibevaag, L. (2016). Researching patient safety and quality in healthcare: A Nordic perspective. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Carper, B. A. (1978). Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 1(1), 13-24. doi:10.1097/00012272-197810000-00004
Grol, R., & Grimshaw, J. (2003). From best evidence to best practice: Effective implementation of change in patients’ care. The Lancet, 362(9391), 1225-1230. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14546-1
Hughes, R. (Ed.). (2008). Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (3rd ed.). Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
University of Missouri Libraries. (2017, Feb 27). Library Guides: Evidence Based Nursing Practice: PICO & Clinical Questions. Retrieved from http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/c.php?g=28271&p=174073
Mosadeghrad, A. M. (2014). Factors influencing healthcare service quality. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 3(2), 77–89. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2014.65
Stillwell, S. B., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B. M., & Williamson, K. M. (2010). Evidence-based practice, step by step: Searching for the evidence. AJN the American Journal of Nursing, 110(5), 41-47. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000372071.24134.7e
