An Interview With Dr Barbara A. Carper

Abstract

In 1978, Dr Barbara A. Carper's foundational work, "Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing," arguably created a paradigm shift in nursing. However, her voice has been absent from the nursing literature in recent years. I was privileged to conduct a personal interview with Dr Carper in 2014. The edited interview includes a synopsis of her background, career trajectory, sources of inspiration, and her perspective on the current state of nursing. She reaffirmed her passion for reflective nursing practice, the importance incorporating the arts and humanities into nursing education, and using an integrated approach with the patterns of knowing in nursing.

Patrones de conocimiento de Carper y expresión en el cuidado de enfermería: estudio de revisión

“…Los resultados de la evidencia científica con abordaje de los patrones del conocimiento de Carper en la educación, práctica clínica y la investigación en enfermería fueron los descritos a continuación. En la revisión de la literatura científica realizada se encontró que la tipología sustenta los marcos de referencia de varias investigaciones fundamentando la epistemología y ontología, los cuales han sido citados más de 1800 veces en la literatura científica por su gran influencia para la enfermería (19). Al respecto, Laura Alberto argumentó que la práctica que genera la investigación desarrolla el patrón empírico, "aunque otros autores podrían argumentar lo contrario"; sostiene que los patrones de conocimiento ético, estético y personal pueden ser sujetos de ser investigados (20).…”

Construction of nursing knowledge in commodified contexts: A discussion paper

“…Patient perspectives together with reflection about nurses' actions are the bases of the development of nursing discipline that constructs patterns of knowing (Eisenhauer, ; Heath, ; Schaefer, ). Lean healthcare can promote scenarios strongly centered around control measures, time standards, and mechanization of processes.…”

Rethinking Carper's personal knowing for 21st century nursing

“…Over time, it became one of the most influential of early nursing theoretical papers (Chinn & Kramer, 2018). In a 2015 interview, the essence of which was also published in that journal, Carper described her motivation for that work as encouraging reflective nursing practice (Eisenhauer, 2015). She had been concerned that nursing curricula in the late 1960s had become overly focused on science to the extent that there was an “exclusion of everything else” (Eisenhauer, 2015, p. 76), and her conviction was that what was essential to the practice of nursing entailed a great deal more than just science.…”

“…In a 2015 interview, the essence of which was also published in that journal, Carper described her motivation for that work as encouraging reflective nursing practice (Eisenhauer, 2015). She had been concerned that nursing curricula in the late 1960s had become overly focused on science to the extent that there was an “exclusion of everything else” (Eisenhauer, 2015, p. 76), and her conviction was that what was essential to the practice of nursing entailed a great deal more than just science. Although she had initially limited her focus to trying to work out how to add ethics into the nursing curricula of the day, the philosophy courses in her doctoral program at Columbia University had ultimately led her to propose the four‐part model of patterns of knowing that we recognize today as Carper's “Ways of Knowing.”…”

“…In her view, they helped to justify the broader humanistic aspect of excellent nursing practice—a counterargument to the excessive influence of scientific thinking on the way we taught and wrote about the discipline. Interestingly, despite the wide uptake of her ideas, she did not much engage in the ongoing discussion, preferring instead to let others find what interpretations they might in the insights she offered (Eisenhauer, 2015). However, as the uptake of her work within the wider body of theoretical literature made apparent, many of her contemporaries considered her patterns of knowing as triggering a paradigmatic shift in their own thinking (Chinn & Kramer, 2018; Jacobs‐Kramer & Chinn, 1988; Johns, 1995).…”