Ethical and Personal Knowledge Development

Ethical and Personal Knowledge Development in Nursing

It is clear that knowledge itself is relevant to the learner. How one comes to know anything depends on a number of contexts, both shared and individual. As such, there are different ways of knowing, like ethical and personal. The two are similar in that they are ways of acquiring knowledge, yet vastly different in where that knowledge is actually derived from. Still, both are incredibly useful when developing knowledge of care and practice within the contemporary nursing field.

Essentially, the two share a major foundational similarity. Ethical and personal experiences and considerations are both structures of knowledge, which essentially then help guide our behavior within the nursing practice. Here, the research suggests that "ethics I a discipline that structures knowledge; it is a branch of inquiry that tries to make sense of what is right or wrong" (Chinn & Kramer, 2010, p 89). One can gain knowledge through the understanding of ethical practices, really what is right and wrong. From this perspective, "ethical knowledge can provide a basis template for judging and evaluating moral standards and behavior" (Chinn & Kramer, 2010, p 90). Personal experiences also then provide a way to judge and evaluate situations and circumstances within our own lives. Therefore, "experiential knowing is the understanding and knowledge that comes from participating in the events of daily living; it is deepened by attending to the experience, studying the process of the experience, and connecting the experience to previous understandings" (Chinn & Kramer, 2010, p 114). Both ethical and personal knowledge help guide our behavior based on them being structures and foundations of knowledge.

Yet, there are clear differences between the two as well. For one thing, the origin of the knowledge of each comes from very different places. Ethical knowledge stems from the external world, what society has bred within us through our assimilation and experience within it. This is often set in place by societal foundations, legal requirements, and moral expectations of a community or culture at large. Ethical knowledge is thus shared by large groups of people from the same community or culture. From a nursing perspective, there is "a unique set of values and a particular culture and practice that affects the ethical decision-making processes" that are often shared by a number of members within the nursing community at large (Chinn & Kramer, 2010, p 93). On the other hand, personal knowledge is unique and often comes from our own internalization of the independent experiences each individual witness throughout his or her life. This is much more internal and variant than ethical knowledge, where each individual has a different knowledge base founded from their own personal experiences.

Thus, the research suggests that personal knowledge is "a process of self knowing that is shaped by your relationships with others and that also shapes your relationships when caring for others" (Chinn & Kramer, 2010, p 113). This is where the two differ most dramatically.