Expert nurses' perceptions of the relevance of Carper's patterns of knowing to junior nurses.

This study explored with expert nurses in the UK how nursing wisdom can be developed in new and junior nurses. Carper's patterns of knowing and Benner's novice-to-expert continuum formed the theoretical framework. Employing a constructionist research methodology with participant engagement in co-construction of findings, data were collected via two separate cycles comprising four consecutive sessions followed by a nationally-advertised mini-conference. Empirical, ethical, personal, and aesthetic knowing were considered evident in junior nurses. Junior nurses in the UK seem to lack a previously-unrecognized domain of organizational knowing without which they cannot overcome hegemonic barriers to the successful development of nursing praxis.