Donna Frost

Concept analysis 53 2 own voice to someone else’s words and tune, so we add our personalities to the human situations we encounter to create something better than there would have been without us.” p. 64 . Peplau ( 1988 ) sums this idea up by saying that rather than referring to nursing as a helping art, it would be better described as ‘an empowering, enabling or transforming art’ (p. 10 ). As alluded to by Peplau ( 1988 ), within this aspect of professional artistry the influence of the professional encounter has the potential, and often the intent, of being more far reaching than the encounter itself. Across different professional lines the ability of the practitioner to contribute to the ongoing growth, wellbeing and learning of the other person is seen as indicative of or due to professional artistry (eg. Andresen & Fredericks, 2001 ; Austen, 2010 ). This was evident in works about information technology (Bond & Wilson, 2000 ), leadership (Cowan, 2007 ), teaching (eg. Bickford & Van Vleck, 1997 ; Gore, Bond & Steven, 2000 ; Henderson, 2001 ; Grainger, 2003 ), professional and personal development (Tasker & Titchen, 2016 ; Titchen & Hammond, 2017 ), nursing (eg. Appleton, 1991 ; 1993 ; Conway, 1996 ; Gramling, 2004 b; Cronan, 2006 ; Gramling, 2006 ; Finfgeld-Connett, 2008 a), medical (Fish & de Cossart, 2007 ) and other caring professions (Fish, 1998 ). Hall ( 2005 ), moreover, identifies those moments in which a nurse really makes a difference for another as not only a moment when he or she can be described as a nurse healer, but also as a moment in which the nurse cares for him or herself as well: the potential for human connection and growth is reciprocal. While the sources cited above describe outcomes that can be themed together as having to do with human flourishing, a number of works examined for this concept analysis were more explicit in their definition and discussion of human flourishing in relation to professional artistry. Titchen ( 2009 , 2019 ), McCormack ( 2009 ), McCormack and Titchen ( 2007 ) and a large number of colleagues (eg. Titchen & Higgs, 2001 b; Titchen & McGinley, 2003 ; Horsfall & Higgs, 2007 ; Titchen et al., 2007 ; Hardy, Titchen, Manley & McCormack, 2009 a; Henderson, 2009 ; Titchen & Hardy, 2009 ; Horsfall & Higgs, 2011 ) consider human flourishing for all stakeholders to be the ultimate aim of person-centred and evidence-based nursing, and of practice development and transformative research activities within the health professions. Their work argues that it is the professional artistry of healthcare, research and practice development practitioners that enables them to weave their professional and personal qualities and capacities, relevant interpersonal strategies and the use of self together, to practise in ways that can result in human flourishing for all those involved.