Donna Frost

246 This inquiry began with the intent of uncovering the beautiful moments of nursing practice, beautiful moments of human connection, care, succour and growth, and to discover in what ways those moments could be illuminated, nurtured and facilitated to happen more often. This concluding chapter considers how this study has met those aims and in doing so contributed to enlarging the knowledge base around professional artistry in nursing practice. The findings of this investigation are discussed in relation to the literature as are the methodological contributions of the study. The methodological strengths and weaknesses of the investigation are also discussed before recommendations are made for both practice and further research. Two research questions were asked and investigated within this inquiry. What is the nature of professional artistry in nursing, and, how can the development of professional artistry in nursing be facilitated? The findings presented in Chapter 6 demonstrate that professional artistry can be understood as a set of ontological and praxiological assumptions: it is a way of perceiving, doing, being and becoming in the nursing encounter. Professional artistry in nursing is furthermore characterized by five patterns of engagement: the creation of a shared, sheltered space; a demonstrated commitment to the ideal; working with the parts and the whole; working with the now and the not yet; and enabling, or taking, transformative action. When moving together these patterns of engagement expand the space for becoming in the nursing encounter. The findings concerning the development of professional artistry in nursing were presented in Chapter 7 and involve three particular transformations of perspective. In summary, the development of professional artistry can be facilitated by enabling nurses to recognise the sources and moments of artistry in their own practice and to identify their own capacity for artistry; further, by learning to articulate these aspects of their embodied praxis and to examine themcognitively and creatively. The development of professional artistry is in addition facilitated when practitioners themselves are enabled or become able to create the conditions in which professional artistry can be recognised, articulated and examined. This process involves practitioners learning to incorporate bodily wisdom into the body of knowledge that they articulate and critique as part of their reflexive activity. So in fact they are learning to become aware of and to recognise their practice as an embodied praxis and learn to investigate it in an embodied way. The critical, creative and collaborative inquiry process presented in this thesis operationalises the critical creativity methodology and is an effective method for supporting such investigation and facilitation.