Aesthetic Knowing

Contributors: Deborah Lindell and Peggy Chinn
Updated October 27, 2022

Aesthetic knowing in nursing is a way of knowing realities that are not empirically observable – the deep meanings in a situation. As nurses grasp these meanings, they can draw on their inner, creative resources to respond to the situation in ways that move the situation from what is, to what is possible. Aesthetic knowing is called forth in the face of human experiences that are common for to all human experience such as grief, joy, anxiety, fear, love. Even though these experiences are common, they are expressed in ways that are unique to each and every individual experience. People recognize common expressions of such experiences as anxiety, pain, fear, or love. But each person’s experience is unique.

Aesthetic knowing in nursing is expressed in practice in transformative acts that reveal the meaning and the significance of the experience (Chinn, P. L.; Kramer, M. & Sitzman, Kathleen, 2022). Aesthetic knowing addresses the questions:

What does this mean? (finding the meaning of the experience to the person who is experiencing it)
How is this significant? (interpreting the depth and importance of the experience)

In practice the nurse’s way of being and relating in a situation and the ways of speaking and acting, form a work of art that responds to the meaning of the situation. In so doing, the nurse facilitates the capacity of the individual, family or community to move through their health experience in ways that heal, comfort and transform.

Aesthetic experiences in nursing can also be represented by works of art that convey the meanings of those experiences to the discipline, and to the public at large. In this section, we feature works of art by nurses, each of which reflect unique meanings and significance of human health experiences, and nursing care in the context of these experiences.

The patterns of knowing, while identified as distinct processes, are interdependent. This is particularly so with the personal and aesthetic patterns of knowing.

Scholar/Artist Gallery

Sources

Nursology.net blogs related to aesthetics

Boykin, A., Parker, M.E., & Schoenhofer, S.O. (1994). Aesthetic knowing grounded in an explicit conception of nursing. Nursing Science Quarterly, 7, 158-161. https://doi.org/10.1177/089431849400700407

Chinn, Peggy L., Kramer, Maeona K., & Sitzman, Kathleen. (2022). Knowledge Development in Nursing: Theory and Process (11th ed.). Elsevier.

Darbyshire, P. (1994). Understanding the life of illness: Learning through the art of Frida Kahlo. Advances in Nursing Science, 17(1), 51-59.

Finfgeld-Connett, D. (2008). Concept synthesis of the art of nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62, 381-388

Gramling, K.L., & Smith, M.C. (2001). “What you need to know!”: Artful caring pedagogy in health assessment. International Journal of Human Caring, 6, 7-11.

Hampton, D.C. (1994). Expertise: The true essence of nursing art. Advances in Nursing Science, 17(1), 15-24.

Johnson, J.L. (1994). A dialectical examination of nursing art. Advances in Nursing Science, 17(1), 1-14.

Koithan, M.S. (1996) Aesthetics in nursing practice and education. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 17(6):529-39. doi: 10.3109/01612849609006531.

LeVasseur, J.J. (2002). A phenomenological study of the art of nursing: Experiencing the turn. Advances in Nursing Science, 24(4), 14-26.

Price, S., Arbuthnot, R., Landry, D., Landry, M., & Butler, L. (2007). The art of nursing: Communication and self-expression. Nursing Science Quarterly, 20, 155-160.

Wikström, B.M. (2002). Nurses’ strategies when providing for patients’ aesthetic needs: Personal experiences of aesthetic means of expression. Clinical Nursing Research, 11, 22-33.