Donna Frost

Introduction 27 1 practice. These studies shed light on how such aspects of practice can successfully be studied. Benner’s ( 1984 ) seminal work on expertise and its development in nursing discussed among other things the role of intuition in expertise and clinical judgement (Benner & Tanner, 1987 ). In later work she examined caring (Benner & Wrubel, 1989 ) embodiment (Benner, 2000 a) and clinical wisdom (Benner, 2000 b; Benner, Tanner & Chesla, 2009 ; Benner, Kryriakidis & Stannard, 2011 ). Deep, reflective narrative interviews and conversations with nurses themselves were central to these studies and to coming to understand the nature of expertise in nursing, caring and embodied clinical wisdom. Conway ( 1996 , 1998 ) too has researched nursing expertise while both Street ( 1992 ) and Ersser ( 1997 ) presented critical ethnographies, looking at clinical nursing and therapeutic activity within nursing respectively. In these inquiries a range of data collection strategies were combined, including practice observations, interviews and reflection on critical incidents. In this way both the practice of nursing and talking about or reflecting on practice were brought into the realm of study. Rose and Parker ( 1994 ) and Bishop and Scudder ( 1997 ) argue that the essence of nursing lies in viewing it as a practise, instead of as either an art or science; Savage ( 1995 ) researched nursing intimacy and Taylor ( 1994 ), among other things, emphasized bringing self to the nurse-patient encounter. Appleton ( 1991 , 1993 ) too concluded that ‘the gift of self’ was a large part of the art of nursing, while Gramling’s ( 2004 b) narrative investigation into nursing art has resulted in a large number of published exemplars of nurses ‘making a difference’ for their patients (eg. Gramling, 2004 a, 2006 , 2008 a, 2008 b, 2008 c). This work too emphasized the storied nature of nursing encounters and the power of the story, when told by the nurse or others within or observing the encounter, to illuminate the less tangible aspects of nursing practice. McCormack ( 2001 ) and McCormack and McCance’s (eg. 2010 , 2017 ) work on person-centredness in nursing encompasses both the ‘things’ that nurses do and the ‘way’ that they are in the nursing encounter. Titchen’s ( 1998, 2001 a, 2001 b, 2004 ) skilled and critical companionship conceptual frameworks have furthermore been found useful in helping nurses and facilitators to reveal and understand their expertise, including aspects of their professional artistry (eg. Brown & Harrison, 2009 ; Greggans & Conlon, 2009 ; McGinley, 2009 ). Some of this work was undertaken as part of a large study in the United Kingdom looking at the ways nurses could be supported to understand and develop their expertise by being supported to inquire into it (Manley et al., 2005 ; Hardy, 2009 ; Hardy, Titchen, McCormack & Manley, 2009 b).