Donna Frost

Facilitation of the development of professional artistry 229 7 expression or the discussion? What did or could the disengagement tell us, what needed our attention? Sometimes it was nothing more than that we were tired or needed a break, but paying attention to these kinds of processes or questions created room for the unexpected. It was very much my work as facilitator in the beginning: I had learnt to ask such questions by working with my supervisors and other experienced practice developers and researchers: I too, therefore, had learnt by doing and experiencing, enabling me to work with CCCI members to create similar conditions. These strategies, brought together, meant that the CCCI participants were supported by me and in the NP group by each other, and that I was supported by my supervisors, to engage with practice and with our being in a way that opened up and engaged our senses. We were supported in a process of making the intangible tangible, and the invisible visible, so that these aspects of our being and doing were brought out into the open. This enabled us to become aware of this other layer, always there, and to feel, in the end, that an examination of practice, or reflection on experience, was incomplete without paying attention to these aspects. There had been a shift in perspective so that we could not go back to experiencing the world as if only the ‘cognitive’ and the visible ‘practical’ aspects were of importance. Understanding how to be intentional and exercise our professional artistry ‘muscles’ The third milestone was the moment, or period of time, for each of us in which we came to an understanding of our own capacity to influence the development of professional artistry in our own practice. Ultimately this involved understanding how we could also help others to make a similar journey. Having reached this milestone we felt capable of being able to grow and nurture our own practice, but also to exercise influence within our own contexts to help others grow and nurture their practice. As with the first two milestones, this milestone was very much a perspective transformation. Much of the data within both the inquiry groups, but particularly the RN inquiry and early on in the NP inquiry, refers to contextual factors which present challenges to the professional striving for professional artistry in their practice. We often felt, or expressed feeling, buffeted by circumstances, pushed and pressed on by circumstances outside our control. Many of these external circumstances did not change during the life of the inquiry and sometimes, particularly within the RN inquiry, they became more pressing or challenging during the inquiry itself. Working together in the ways described above, and reaching those milestones, created