Donna Frost

Chapter 8 274 This is particularly suitable for investigating those situations in which nurses, other health professionals or students would like to gain insight into the aspects of their practice that are going well, or in situations that are puzzling or in which they are struggling. Following the steps in the CCCI lemniscate is a low key introduction to the use of creativity in surfacing, explicating and coming to understand the invisible and less tangible aspects of practice and professional artistry and it supports the experience of embodied learning. As emphasized throughout this thesis, such ways of working are only responsible when principles for engagement have been agreed and effort is made to create and maintain safe and sheltered spaces within which such activities can occur. Finally, the methodological principles for creating the conditions for human flourishing, such as circles of connection, spiralling through turbulence, energizing forces and openness to all ways of being, provide inspiration and guidance for working in ways that support transformative work generally and inquiry into professional artistry specifically. These principles were introduced in Chapter 3 of this thesis, and several examples of how each of these principles ‘looked’ when enacted in this inquiry are given in Table 5 . 6 . That table provides concrete examples of integrating central principles of critical creativity into practice development, collaborative or individual inquiry work. Implications for further research Alongside implications for nursing and healthcare settings, the findings of this study have implications for ongoing research. This inquiry shows that it is both possible and worthwhile to facilitate groups of practitioners in embodied inquiry processes with the intent of facilitating the development of their professional artistry. The CCCI methodology is also suitable for inquiring collaboratively into other embodied aspects of nursing practice, such as person-centredness, developing clinical leadership or promoting human flourishing. Additional research into the phenomenon of professional artistry is needed to further develop and contest the findings presented in this thesis. I have suggested in this concluding chapter that the findings can be extrapolated to other health care professions: this is an area worthy of investigation. Is the focus on enabling transformative action and enlarging the space for becoming a universal attribute of professional artistry, for example, or only of professional artistry within nursing or other helping professions? Similarly, investigation of the ways these findings complement or can be integrated with Titchen’s professional artistry frameworks would improve conceptual clarity of the concept of professional artistry.