The omission of some patterns of knowing in clinical care: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Providing holistic and humanistic care to patients requires a variety of factors. A care solely based on objective knowledge might be unsafe and of low quality. Using the patterns of knowing in an integrated manner and relative to the context of caring is one of the necessities for proving a holistic and efficient nursing care. This study aimed to explore the role of patterns of knowing in the formation of uncaring behaviors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The researchers used a qualitative research design for this study. Participants included 19 clinical nurses who attended semi-structured and in-depth interviews. In addition, theoretical and purposeful sampling methods were used in this research. Observation of caring processes in different hospital wards was another method used for collecting data. The data analysis was carried out according to conventional content analysis technique. RESULTS: The study findings revealed five categories for the theme of “omission of some patterns of knowing” including omission of scientific principles, omission of therapeutic relationship, omission of ethics, omission of social justice, and omission of flexibility. CONCLUSIONS: The omission of some patterns of knowing creates an ugly image of nursing and a negative outcome of caring as well.