Donna Frost

Chapter 2 32 The purpose of this chapter is to present a concept analysis of professional artistry, exploring and explicating the ways in which the term is used and understood in the literature. Secondly, to address the implications of this knowledge and the gaps in what is known for furthering understanding of professional artistry and meeting the aims of this research. Professional artistry: setting the scene Terms such as the art of nursing can be traced back to Florence Nightingale ( 1860 / 1969 , p. 9 ), as can the idea that it is not just what nurses do but how they do it that is important, and that there is more to nursing than meets the eye (Stewart, 1929 ). The words ‘ art of’ or ‘ artistry’ are fairly common place in modern healthcare literature and often used without further definition, leaving the meaning of the term to be inferred (eg. Hines, 1992 ; Turpin, 2014 ; Wood, 2016 ). Even when the term artistry is being used as a criteria against which the quality of work can be measured or determined, the term is not necessarily defined in the text (eg. Whiteford, 2007 ; Aamotsmo & Bugge, 2014 ; Coleman, 2016 ; Carroll, 2018 ). Not all connotations are wholly positive: Finlay ( 2006 ) seems to use it to describe aspects of writing that are needlessly decorative (artistic flourishes). In most cases, however, the use of ‘art of’ or ‘artistry’ are terms associated with excellence and practice which is more than merely technically correct (Strachan-Hall, 2014 ; Steinke & Elangovan, 2016 ; Wolf & France, 2017 ; Cleary, Cohen & Delaney, 2019 ). Stewart ( 1929 ), for example, describes the art of nursing as having to do with the creative imagination, sensitive spirit, and intelligent understanding of the nurse. Chan ( 2014 ) links the terms art, artist and artistry explicitly with creativity and critical thinking, while Steinke and Elangovan ( 2016 ) say that it puts the heart in nursing; that the art of nursing has to do with the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of nursing instead of the ‘what’ and ‘how’. According to many (e.g. Austen, 2010 ; Schön, 1983 , 2001 ; Titchen & Higgs, 2001 ; Titchen, Higgs, & Horsfall, 2007 ; Wagenheim, 2014 ), a similar case can be made in the practice of any profession: artistic practice is effective, holistic, creative, inspirational and made to look easy. The term ‘ professional artistry ’ within the professional literature originates with the work of Donald Schön ( 1983 , 1987 ). Since Schön, use of the term professional artistry has varied, sometimes serving simply as a synonym for skilled know-how (e.g. Kennedy, 2004 ) or intuitive knowledge (e.g. Ajeneye, 2005 ). At the other end of the scale professional artistry is considered to be a complex interplay of processes and dimensions (Titchen, 2000 , 2009 , 2019 ), which together enable morally intentioned practice and ultimately human flourishing (Henderson, 2001 ; Titchen &