title: Reflections on caring narratives: enhancing patterns of knowing.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to provide graduate students with the opportunity to enrich their esthetic knowing and acquire the meaning of caring in their practice by reflecting on their caring narratives. Content analysis examining for context, process, and fulfillment was used to analyze 68 caring encounters written by five classes of graduate nursing students over five semesters of course work. This article focuses on the value of reflection in knowing and the fulfillment identified by the students through the reflective process. Student fulfillment included reflecting on the need to care for self, knowing that emotional attachment can be dangerous, recognizing caring as a moral responsibility, attending to caring teaches one about caring, and reflecting on caring encounters engages one in defining caring. It is concluded that graduate nursing students can enhance multiple ways of knowing and their understanding of caring through the process of reflecting on caring encounters.
authors.affiliation: Temple University College of Allied Health, Department of Nursing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Karen Moore
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Schaefer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000379:methods*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D013850:Thinking; D014481:United States