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This article describes the development of aesthetic inquiry and the emerging conceptualization of the art of nursing as an art form. Aesthetic knowing, which emerges from aesthetic inquiry, is described as connoisseurship of the art of nursing and includes appreciation of the art form and insight into meanings of the art. A method of aesthetic criticism is described that links artistic experience, history, form, alternate meanings, and future possibilities. The inquiry yielded two essential elements of the art of nursing, movement and narrative, which, when manifested as an art form have the capacity to shift experience into a different realm.
"The art of nursing" is a phrase that has been used extensively in nursing literature (Johnson, 1994, 1996). Its meanings and connotations remain unclear, however, including such disparate meanings as manual skills, technical expertise, rational application of the nursing process, moral conduct, intuition and grasping of the whole, meaningful interpersonal relationships, and a way of knowing in nursing (Carper, 1978; Chinn & Kramer, 1995; Johnson, 1994; Katims, 1993). The inquiry described here grew out of an intention to develop a method appropriate to the aesthetic pattern of knowing in nursing. In order to develop such a method, a clearer understanding of the phenomenon of "the art of nursing" was a central concern of this inquiry.
The purpose of this report is to describe the formally developed method for aesthetic inquiry and aesthetic knowing, building on the prior work of Chinn (1994). Here we extend that work to refine the method of inquiry, and to include a definition of the art of nursing, which specifies the mediums of nursing art: movement and narrative.
AESTHETIC KNOWING AND AESTHETIC INQUIRY
Aesthetic knowing differs from other patterns of knowing in a number of ways, many of which are not yet fully understood (Carper, 1978; Chinn & Kramer, 1995; Katims, 1993; Kim, 1993). It involves knowing that is deeply personal and intentionally intersubjective. It touches common depths of human experience not reached by other patterns of knowing. It is an important component of nursing as a discipline because of nursing's connections with deeply felt experiences of life (sickness, suffering, recovery, birth, death) that can often only be expressed in art form. As a component of nursing ontology and epistemology,...