Unready-to-Hand as Adventure: Knowing Within the Practice Wisdom of Clinical Nurse Educators

Abstract

My interest in exploring the knowing and practice wisdom that inform clinical nurse educators' actions within challenging and unpredictable situations, evolved from my own experiences as a nurse educator teaching students in clinical practice. Clinical nurse educators frequently encounter, or are thrown into situations that interrupt automaticity and smooth action, pausing to make sense of what is going on. In moving towards, within and beyond this interruption in smooth activity, identified as an "Unready-to-Hand" experience, clinical nurse educators create a matrix of situational knowing and wisdom that surrounds propositional knowing. This knowing is not readily available as expounded knowledge. In striving to clarify the knowing and wisdom that inform clinical nurse educators' responses through unpredictable situations, I referred to philosophical literature on the notions of tacit knowledge, practical wisdom, smooth activity and the Unready-to-Hand experience. I created an explanatory framework and utilized this in a thought experiment by reflecting on personal experiences. To add clarity to my reflections I carried out two layers of interviewing nurse educators teaching in practice. The first layer was an interview with eight clinical nurse educators who in their role experienced Unready-to-Hand situations. The second layer consisted of four clinical nurse educators who volunteered to be involved in more in-depth interviews. An interpretive analysis of these clinical nurse educators stories illuminated the "Unready-to Hand as Adventure", highlighting the uncertainty and energy associated with opening in the adventure, not knowing what will unfold yet committed to remaining engaged and doing the best they can. Through the process of attuning to difference, accessing and deciphering knowing, nurse educators create meanings of situational complexities. By preserving the ideals of good practice and engaged caring, nurse educators salvage learning by creating opportunities for learning and teaching. In moving beyond by ex-situating the adventure, clinical nurse educators enter a space of comfort and familiarity, as expressed in "recovering as homecoming". In re-telling the story, they remember the immersion and what it was like to be situated in knowing-knowing, knowing-not knowing and knowing-unknowing. These modes of unknowing inform the process of attuning to difference and the clinical nurse educators' response as described through the domains of practice within Unready-to- Hand experiences. This exploration makes explicit the unique combination of situational and propositional knowing, resting within the broad realm of practice wisdom, that constitutes the professional practice knowledge of clinical nurse educators. In explicating Unready-to-Hand knowing clinical nurse educators' beliefs, values and commitment to the profession, and their patterns of practice that contribute towards specialized expertise and competence were uncovered. Unready-to-Hand knowing is shown to be central to high quality and effective teaching of nursing students in practice. These findings assist nurse educators in articulating what and how they teach in practice. Novice level educators may use these findings to move towards higher levels of expertise as educators. Registered nurses who would like to consider the role of educating nursing students in practice, may utilize these findings in exploring the possibilities and challenges of this role and gain insight into how one may respond within the everyday encounters that characterize this area of practice.