Donna Frost

Chapter 1 28 What these studies demonstrate, with respect to studying professional artistry, is that it is possible, desirable even, to investigate the complexity of practice within practice: within the complexity. It is the complexity of the context which gives practice its meaning and makes it understandable (cf. Snoeren, 2015 ). Furthermore, it is useful to look at practice ‘from the inside out’ and ‘from the outside in’ (Titchen, 2000 ; McCormack, Titchen & Manley, 2013 ). Observations of practice followed by reflective dialogue about those specific encounters with the people who were part of the encounter have been successfully employed to increase understandings of complex and tacit aspects of nursing practice. I have argued in the first half of this chapter that it is professional artistrywhich lends a special effectiveness and perhaps even beauty to excellent nursing practice. This conclusion has been reached based on theoretical work, much of it in other disciplines, and research within nursing which had, initially, a focus other than professional artistry. An empirical investigation into professional artistry in nursing is not yet present in the literature. A deeper understanding of the professional artistry of nursing practice has implications for the education and professional development of healthcare professionals, as well as the development of contexts within which such practice can flourish. The aim of the present research, therefore, was to deepen empirical understanding of the professional artistry of nursing practice and the ways in which such professional artistry, and its development, can be facilitated. The research questions were: 1. What is the nature of professional artistry in nursing practice? 2. How can the development of professional artistry in nursing be facilitated? Structure of the thesis This thesis opens with a concept analysis of professional artistry, considering how the concept is used and understood in the literature (Chapter 2 ). In Chapter 3 the philosophical and theoretical foundations of this research are explored and explicated, moving into a justification for locating the research within the worldview of critical creativity (McCormack & Titchen, 2006 ; Titchen & McCormack, 2008 , 2010 ). Chapter 4 presents the design of the research, ‘critical creative collaborative inquiry', and explains the research methods in detail. Chapters 5 , 6 and 7 each present a different aspect of the findings. Chapter 5 shows how the collaborative inquiry looked in action, introducing the research participants and illustrating our ways of working together. In Chapter 6 the findings pertaining to the first research question are presented, and in Chapter 7 the findings in relation to the second