Donna Frost

Chapter 7 238 Table 7 . 2 Challenges faced on the journey towards professional artistry Potential hurdle or source of support Challenge More supportive alternative 1 Work culture Working in a context where professional artistry is not valued Working in and working to create and nurture a context were professional artistry is valued 2 The understanding of / experience of one’s own expertise Making the transition from expert to novice, building up expertise again in a different ( clinical) area Understanding the characteristics of one’s own expertise and professional artistry and learning to transfer these understandings to new settings. 3 Professional support Having no community of like-minded individuals around you / feeling alone Finding and/or working to create and nurture a (small) community of like-minded people to be part of 4 Developmental focus (where we place the focus, so, where the focus of development lies. Paying only sporadic attention to the development of professional artistry in one’s practice Paying sustained attention to under - standing and developing professional artistry in one’s pratice 5 Mental model / assumptions / convictions Viewing professional artistry as something we ‘do’ Viewing professional artistry as a way of being which imbues our doing, knowing and becoming. Neither the challenges nor the supportive alternatives felt ‘new’ to us. Neither were we surprised that they had an influence on our ability to practise with and develop our professional artistry. As with the nature of professional artistry (Chapter 6 ) and the milestones on the way to developing professional artistry (earlier in Chapter 7 ), these challenges cannot be considered to be independent of each other. There follow two examples of situations all inquiry members faced during the life of the inquiry in which the various features are evident and either present as a challenge or as a more conducive alternative. The relevant row number in Table 7 . 2 is referred to throughout.