This comprehensive resource examines how nursing theory and patterns of knowing affect nursing practice. In addition to the concepts of ethical knowledge, aesthetic knowledge, and empiric knowledge development, you'll learn about the newest pattern of knowing - emancipatory knowing. This pattern centers on the human capacity to create change by envisioning desired outcomes, particularly in situations that involve injustice or social wrongs. Throughout the book, helpful activities encourage you to reflect on important concepts and explore how evidence-based nursing theory can be used to improve the quality of care.

A full-color insert visually demonstrates the fundamentals of knowing and includes the new concept of emancipatory knowing. Comprehensive discussions of nursing theory help you understand how theory development and nursing research apply to actual practice. Interpretive Summaries of selected conceptual frameworks highlight the essential features you need to know.

A new chapter - Emancipatory Knowing: Knowing for Practice - emphasizes the importance of discovering what lies beneath issues and problems, redefining these issues and problems to reveal connections between complex social and political contexts, and then acting to address the underlying issues. Reflection and Discussion sections at the end of each chapter reinforce key concepts and encourage further discussion and reflective writing. The concept of using evidence-based practice to improve the quality of care is incorporated throughout, as well as how evidence-based practice contributes to theory development. Updated information on theory development incorporates the influence of emancipatory knowing and helps you connect theory and knowledge to your own experiences and everyday nursing practice.