PDF (PhD Thesis) - UWE Research Repository - University of the ...

interplay between the two positions where learning occurs and that I
believe inspires reflecting during care giving. We need to facilitate nurses
to be comfortable with discomfort and strong emotions in ourselves and in
others.
An Epistemology of Practice through Poetry
I have learnt to view poetry as an epistemology of practice that can be
used in the classroom to deepen the reflexive conversation. Poetry as an
embodied process has the potential to open up multiple ways of seeing the
world, to tune us back into our body, our senses, our ‗multiple selves‘.
There is no right answer with poetry. Pickering (2000) warns however, that
any genuine engagement with poems is unpredictable and therefore they
should not be used for any external ends. Therefore this approach could
act as a counterbalance to more mechanistic ways of facilitating reflective
practice. Poetry can promote questioning of values and practices
encouraging a new way of feeling the experience through the poem.
Poetry can express the ineffable and the difficult aspects of practice that
we do not usually focus on. I have found that poetry is a way of expressing
some of my raw emotions and I can release this emotional tension through
writing poetry. Poetry can develop empathy. Writing from the perspective
of another helps me see alternative perspectives. Performing the poems
with students increased my vulnerability and potentially reduced the power
differentials thus creating a more intimate environment and mirroring
connection with others.
Through connecting to feelings some nurses who have absorbed the
habitus of a distanced professional can re-connect to why they came into
nursing. I have argued direct patient care and emotional support have little
social, cultural, political and symbolic capital as a consequence such
caring is de-valued at the expense of co-ordinating functions. As I have
argued earlier not everyone can nurse yet as long as caring is de-valued in
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