Emotional knowing in nursing practice: In the encounter between life and death

Abstract

Patients, next of kin and nurses in surgical wards often raise existential questions in the encounter between life and death. Nurses’ emotional knowing at this encounter is crucial. Consequently, this study's purpose was to analyse and describe nurses’ emotional knowing to reveal (a) how this knowing is expressed in daily work and (b) what emotions, thoughts and actions this knowing includes. This study used combined ethnographic and hermeneutic methodologies. Data were collected using participant observations, informal conversations and interviews. We found that nurses’ emotional knowing could be interpreted in relation to various rooms of emotions, thoughts and actions. Nurses’ judgements formed these rooms. They strived to do things correctly in the normative room; created a safe, secure milieu for patients and next of kin in the safety–security room; and questioned their actions in the critical room. They created affinity for co-operation that benefitted encounters with patients in their affinity room. And they demonstrated sensitivity and compassion to patients and next of kin; sensitivity and compassion were particularly evident in the closeness room. In our main interpretation, we found that nurses’ judgements in various rooms (emotional knowing) constitute an expression of practical wisdom (phronesis) in nursing practice.

Keywords

• Emotional knowing
• ethnography
• critical hermeneutics
• nurses
• assistant nurses
• nursing practice
• phronesis