In search of the art of nursing within nursing education

Nursing has been referred to as an art and a science for over a century. The science has been a focus in nursing literature more recently in order to demonstrate the importance of evidence-based practice to the nursing profession. Less understood in nursing education and practice is the definition and implication of the art of nursing. A comprehensive literature review revealed there is a lack of descriptive research from the nursing faculty perspective regarding both the definition and methods of teaching the art of nursing in today's nursing schools. The aim of this qualitative descriptive study was to gain an understanding of how nursing faculty perceive the art of nursing given a definition derived from the literature, how they view the art as similar or different from this definition, how they have evolved in their teaching of the art, how they integrate nursing art in their teaching practice and the facilitators and barriers to teaching the art. This study utilized a qualitative descriptive design with responsive interviewing as developed by Rubin and Rubin (2012). In-depth interviews were conducted to gain a rich description of the nursing faculty perceptions of the art of nursing in nursing education. The sample of eleven participants included nursing faculty from three schools of nursing in Massachusetts. Participants were recruited from one university and two colleges using purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. Study data were collected through one-hour, audio taped interviews. Data were analyzed using Rubin and Rubin's (2012) procedure for analysis of responsive interviewing. Major themes and sub-themes were identified for each of the research questions. Themes for the definition of the art of nursing included: In the moment, therapeutic communication, caring, holistic/human experience, innate characteristics and life experiences. These major themes were consistent for the majority of the participants. Each major theme was further analyzed. In the moment included sub-themes of engaging/connecting and presence. Therapeutic communication consisted of sub-themes: verbal and non-verbal communication. Caring included sub-themes of genuine/empathy and trust. Participants described methods of teaching the art of nursing such as, role modeling, active teaching strategies, and storytelling. Active learning strategies included simulation, activities, and the use of videos. The participants described how their teaching of the art of nursing evolved over time, from using more rigid and concrete strategies as new faculty to including the art of nursing more often in their teaching as they gained experience. Facilitators such as confidence, technology, teaching methods and labeling the art of nursing were shared by the participants. Faculty also shared barriers to teaching the art of nursing including lack of experience, curriculum demands, and technology. Findings from this research study provided a rich description of how nursing faculty define and describe the art of nursing, how they teach the art of nursing, how their teaching evolves and the facilitators and barriers to teaching.