Place Knowing of Persons and Populations

Abstract

Place emerges when space acquires definition in social constructions of meaning as landscape-languages, which reflect assumptions about physical and social realities. The place work of nursing, which resonated throughout Nightingale's work and the profession's evolution, focuses on human health and healing in the historical transitions and landscape-languages of populations. However, evidence-based practice dominated by empirical knowing inadequately addresses complex health and illness dynamics between place and populations. Translating evidence to the life course experiences of individuals and populations requires place knowing of human situated embodiment within discrete space. An exploration of the concept of place, its application to nursing, and the need for a place paradigm for practice is presented. A sense of salience and situated cognition has been identified as the essential element of the transformation needed in the education of nurses. Place knowing integrates other patterns of knowing (empirical, ethical, aesthetical, personal, unknowing, sociopolitical, and emancipatory) in a situated cognition. Place knowing, like other established patterns of knowing, is a significant epistemological foundation of nursing. Place knowing allows the nuanced intricately complex dynamics of embodied situated human health and illness to be examined, the salience of the particulars to be considered, and the whole of the landscape-languages to emerge.

Otsin: Sharing the spirit--Development of an indigenous rural nursing practice course

“…The exploration of place and protocol is shared to offer insights to academics pursuing Indigenous course development. The notion of place has historical underpinnings to Nightingale's work in the evolution of the nursing profession [11] that has been translated to unique constituted meanings. Place has been conceptualized as having three distinct but interrelated components: location, situatedness, locus [12] that has relevance and meaning for the provision of nursing care to individuals, family, and communities.…”

“…Place immersed within a nursing curriculum is the embodiment of knowing (empirical, ethical, aesthetical, persona, unknowing, sociopolitical, and emancipatory) in situated cognition. [11] Utilizing storytelling as a format of translating place is a traditional pedagogical method practiced by Indigenous Peoples has meaning and relevance to nursing curriculum, research and practice. A story of place can capture the pedagogical underpinnings of nursing akin to the carved Gitxsan totem poles representing the knowledge, oral history and languages restored, and disseminated through stories shared by elders.…”

Entanglements, shadows, and dissonance: Formations of socio-political knowing in nursing. A critical inquiry.

“…Since then, Thomas (2013) has added 'place knowing' of person and popula ons as an integra on to all of the previous ways of knowing. Based on research with grandmothers in Canada and drawing on a number of nursing theorists plus Carper's work, Thomas contends that the significance of place in health and wellbeing enables nurses to work with "increasingly complex health and illness dynamics of popula ons across a global spectrum" (p. 272).…”

“…In chapter two I contended that ways of knowing proposed by nursing theorists since Carper's (1978) original thesis contribute to the development of emancipatory knowing and praxis. For example, cul va ng a rela onal 'unknowing' stance and 'PLACE' knowing (poli cs, locale, ancestry, culture and economics) or situated cogni on (Thomas, 2013), and developing an understanding of organisa onal knowing (Terry et al, 2017) all add to depth to the concept of 'upstream knowing' that poten ally fosters and supports emancipatory knowing and praxis. As illustrated by the conceptual framework developed in literature review (see chapter two, page 25), I proposed that the development of socio-poli cal knowing was poten ally a construc ve process or journey that included understanding no ons of equity and parameters of fairness, social jus ce, cultural safety, and determinants of health within a nursing framework.…”