Facilitating practitioner research through critical companionship

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Abstract
The investigation of practice by practitioners themselves is growing in nursing. It is now expected of many nurses that they will carry out research as part of their everyday practice, for example, in the case of consultant nurses. Nurses are also expected today to provide evidence-based care for their patients and their carers. Researching one's own practice, providing care based on rigorously gained knowledge of many types and giving a professional account of that practice are challenging activities for which many nurses need support. Based on that premise, this paper explores 'critical companionship' (Titchen, 2000; RCN, 2003), which can be described as a helping relationship based on trust, high challenge and high support, in which an experienced practitioner accompanies a less experienced practitioner on a learning journey. It is a means of enabling nurses to acquire, experientially, the knowledge and skills required for patient care and its development. The concept of critical companionship is described within the context of a practitioner learning to investigate the nature and development of her own professional knowledge base and to transform her findings into potentially transferable ones. Findings relating to therapeutic use of self and its impact on patients are offered as an exemplar of this transformation process. In addition, a new conceptual framework for blending all types of knowledge through professional artistry is described. Collaborative testing of this framework within a critical companionship relationship is shown. It is concluded from this piece of practitioner research that professional artistry is essential for genuinely evidence-based, person-centred care, and that it can be facilitated through critical companionship. The conclusion is also made, based on our own and others' work, that critical companionship is effective in enabling practitioners to gather, analyse and critique evidence from their own practice and to articulate this evidence to peers for critical scrutiny, public review and knowledge creation. The benefits of critical companionship for patients and carers are described.

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