Donna Frost

Facilitation of the development of professional artistry 237 7 Clustering the features and challenges of our journeys together shows four particular situations that were present within the CCCI when taken as a whole. Firstly, the RN members of the RNI were working to understand and develop their professional artistry in an environment in which this way of understanding practice was not generally valued. The NP members of the NPI, on the other hand, worked in environments in which their expertise was valued, in any case, and in which they experienced at least some space and appreciation of their efforts to develop professional artistry. Thirdly, my journey, and that of some members of the NPI, involved a transition: having developed a degree of professional artistry in one aspect of professional life we were now engaged in developing professional artistry in another sphere. I had developed, for example, professional artistry as a nurse; during the study I worked on developing professional artistry as a facilitator and later as a writer of this thesis. A number of NP inquirers described a similar transition: developing professional artistry as an NP after having developed a degree of artistry as an RN. As well, the members of the NPI began developing professional artistry as facilitators of their own and each others’ professional artistry. Finally, the fourth kind of journey we made as inquiry members was in learning to create the conditions for the facilitation of professional artistry outside the context of the CCCI, for example for other colleagues. Examination of the characteristics and challenges of these different circumstances highlighted particular features which were helpful, or not, when facilitating the development of professional artistry. The features which needed dealing or coping with, however they presented themselves, were these: the culture within which the professional works, the professional’s own understanding of her own expertise particularly when in transition, the availability of professional support, the particular focus of professional development activities and the assumptions and convictions of the professional herself. These features are set out in Table 7 . 2 , alongside a brief description of the particular challenge associated with each feature and the more supportive alternatives.