Preparing to care in the 21st century: a personal search for the meaning of ontological competency through an embodied journey of the soul

Abstract

This thesis is a philosophical inquiry that reflects a personal search for the meaning of ontological competency undertaken by the author after developing breast cancer. The text weaves together in creative synthesis, a collection of academic and personal writing undertaken during an MA (Applied) in Nursing degree process. Using the work of Dowling Singe (1999), Watson (1999), and Wilber (1985, 1990, 1991 & 2000), the thesis seeks, through the use of reflective autobiographical inquiry (Johnstone 1999a), to explore, through use of autobiographical inquiry, the personal meaning-making activities engaged in during this time to throw light upon the Nature of Nurse / Nursing Being. Exploring developmental schemata drawn from personal experience and illuminated by theory, nurses and nursing are challenged to become more Self-Reflective and Self-Aware. To facilitate the personal and professional growth that underpins notions of ontological competency, various aids in the form of maps and models are provided to support a Transformative Journey into Awareness. From this position of Expanding Consciousness, the nurse / nursing is encouraged to reach beyond current paradigms, metaparadigms, epistemologies, and restrictive philosophies and to yield to the evolutionary imperative that seeks to prepare for a 21st Century Clinical Practice where Caring / Healing becomes Embodied Enactment from The Ground of All Being.