Beyond expertise: theory, practice and the reflexive practitioner

Abstract

This paper reconsiders Benner's book From Novice to Expert, in which the expert is portrayed as a reflective practitioner who works intuitively, drawing almost unconsciously on a repertoire of context-specific paradigm cases. In the light of more recent writings on informal, practice-based theory, it is suggested that there is a sixth level beyond expertise which is characterized by mindful practice and informal theory building. At this level, the practitioner constructs informal theory out of practice, applies that theory back into practice, and reflexively modifies the theory as a result of the changed clinical situation. Seen in this way, theory and practice are two parts of the same process, and the theory-practice gap is closed.

Marking out the clinical expert/clinical leader/clinical scholar: perspectives from nurses in the clinical arena

“…The nurse expert is someone who has superior performance in their everyday work life [16]. Work into the 1990s and 21 st century has focussed on how expert nurses discern cues and make decisions differently to novice practitioners [16-18]. In the context of what role they perform in practise they can be seen as advanced practice nurses.…”

Acting to Manage Conflict and Bullying Through Evidence-Based Strategies

“…The concepts for the model are based on theories about learning through sharing and exchange of experiences, and transforming nursing through supervision and refl ective practice (Rolfe 1997(Rolfe , 1998. In addition, Freire's ( 1972 ) theory of dialogue and Dewey's ( 1964 ) theory of learning by doing provided a foundation.…”

Building confidence: An exploration of nurses undertaking a postgraduate biological science course

“…Following this initial analysis, both researchers reviewed the individually-designed thematic frameworks together, and re-worked the themes into a thematic scheme. & Mays, 2000; Rolfe, 1997;Seymour, Kinn, & Sutherland, 2003). To explore the credibility of this concept of theory guided practice in the clinical environment, research that explores how nurses experience and utilise postgraduate biological science courses in their daily practice is warranted.…”

“…The concept of nursing theory and clinical practice existing in separate silos is widely known as the 'theorypractice gap', and has been the focus of debate for many years amongst nursing academics (Hewison & Wildman, 1996;Landers, 2000;Pope et al, 2000;Rolfe, 1997;Seymour et al, 2003).…”