Donna Frost

Chapter 4 92 organisation, together responsible for around 200 full-time equivalent nursing and care staff offering both intramural and extramural care, supported involvement in the project. They enabled me to contact team managers and senior nurses in supervisory roles. These team managers and senior nurses were not structurally involved in day to day hands on care delivery but they agreed to nominate potential participants among the registered nurses (RN’s) known to them and working in care delivery within the organisation. I asked them to consider nurses who they would describe as having the ‘X-factor’ as a nurse; nurses who made a real difference for their clients or whom they would like to have caring for their own parents. Together the five managers and five senior nurses nominated 20 different registered nurses. Of these 20 nurses, eleven had been nominated by at least three of the ten people doing the nominating. These eleven were all willing to be approached by me. Four RNs were interested enough, after explanation of the study and consent procedures, to form an inquiry group. They became the first CCCI group (hereafter the RN inquiry). The second inquiry group: advanced nurse practitioners working in a variety of settings For the second group I searched among NPs and focused more on identifying peoplewhowanted to be part of creative collaborative investigation into the aspects of their practice that made them proud, and less on finding nurses considered by others to demonstrate professional artistry. I had learnt from the first inquiry group that professional artistry had at least partly to do with the affinity and worldview of the professional, so I went looking for people who were themselves interested in investigating these aspects of their practice. As well, by searching among NPs I was searching among people with a degree of clinical expertise, and who had chosen to further their career via a clinical masters instead of via management for example. Theywere likely to demonstrate technical expertise, at least, and perhaps artistry in some areas of practice. Additionally, as masters prepared nurses, NPs have spent many hours being observed in practice and have some knowledge of research methods. These experiences and skills are an advantage when forming a collaborative inquiry group. Although I could not pay participants for their time, participation in aspects of this study attracted continuing education credits, a certain number of which NPs are required to acquire each year. I approached a group of NPs, found via my professional network on LinkedIn, who met periodically in my province (Zuid Holland). I requested time at their half yearly meeting to present the topic, goals and method of the inquiry and to seek