Using Nursing Science Does Not Guarantee Nursing Excellence
Nursing excellence is usually defined in terms of having and applying more and more knowledge, especially from nursing science—the more nurses know, the better their practice. This conceptualization of nursing practice has similarities with the ancient Greek mode of reasoning calledtechnebut cannot adequately deal with the ambiguities of everyday nursing. Nursing excellence does occur, however, withphronetic, ontological practice in which a nurse’s morals, habits, and dispositions guide practice. Of course, nurses need a comprehensive knowledge and skill base, butphroneticnurses negotiate the “rough ground” of nursing practice because ontological dispositions are guiding practice rather than simply applying generalizable and communal knowledge from nursing science.Techne-ical practice leads to competent nursing, but onlyphroneticpractice results in nursing excellence. Included in this article is a description oftechne-ical practice, its limitations for nursing excellence, and rationale for adopting aphroneticconceptualization of nursing practice.practice.