AESTHETIC KNOWING GROUNDED IN AN EXPLICIT CONCEPTION OF NURSING

This article presents an expanded perspective of aesthetic knowing in nursing grounded in the theory of nursing as caring. The authors highl ight Carper's contributions to nursing, applauding the value of her wo rk. However, a major limitation of Carper's work on aesthetic knowing is the failure to provide an explicit conception of nursing to guide t he search for patterns and structure of nursing knowledge, thus the li mited development of the aesthetic pattern of knowing in nursing. The authors propose that aesthetic knowing in nursing is the creating expe rience in the nursing situation, expression of the experience, and app reciation of it through encounter.