By Scott Beck, 4th year BSN Student
As I reflect broadly upon my undergraduate career, it is easy to remember the milestones: the first time that I gave an injection, the first time that I saw new life come into the world, or the first time that I struggled to find the right words as I held a grieving family member. Yet it is more difficult to express the unique synergy of theory, research, and practice opportunities that have made those experiences possible. Indeed, I cannot begin to describe my experience of education and socialization into the role of the registered nurse without offering an appreciation for the practice of critical inquiry.
In the context of nursing, critical inquiry is a rigorous process of examining assumptions, knowledge, and questions with the goal of gaining or creating new information and new perspectives.(1) With this definition in mind, I find it perplexing that many nurses consider theory and inquiry as abstract bodies of knowledge that are distinct from the practice of nursing.(2)
Over the past four years, I have learned that no practice is atheoretical; every time that I carefully complete a clinical assessment, consider sources from the body of nursing literature, or learn about research through my work with the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award, I am engaging in a process of inquiry.
Acknowledging this gives me appreciation not only for my progression as a learner and a knower, but also for the breadth of the practice of registered nurses.
Registered nurses practice as clinicians, researchers, administrators, and educators. My lived experiences have taught me that when undergraduate students are not exposed to nursing as a profession in all of its richness, we do a disservice not only to ourselves intra-professionally, but also to the public – the nursing profession’s key stakeholder. For when we celebrate the very interaction of theory, practice, and inquiry that makes nursing so invaluable, those we serve directly benefit from a way of being that is greater than the sum of their separate effects. As my undergraduate chapter comes to a close and I transition towards the autonomous practice of a registered nurse, I will endeavor to hold onto this most valuable lesson.
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1 Jennings, L. & Potter Smith, C. (2002). Examining the role of critical inquiry for transformative practices: Two joint case studies of
multicultural teacher education. Teachers College Record, 104(3), 456.
2 Hartrick Doane, G. & Varcoe, C. (2005). Family nursing as relational inquiry: Developing health promoting practice. Philadelphia:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
From the 2014 Spring Communiqué — Student Issue
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