Métier Artistry: Revealing reflection-in-action in everyday practice

SummaryThis paper describes an unanticipated outcome of a larger ethnographic study that set out to investigate how experienced practitioners teach nursing to undergraduate students during structured clinical placements. The research is embedded in the noted works of Schon, Carper, Polanyi, Benner and Benner and Wrubel and their notions of artistry that exists within practice.Through the use of observations of students, registered nurses and patients in the authentic clinical milieu the researcher was able to expose, an as yet undetected aspect of artistry in practice. Of distinction to this research is a newly uncovered dimension of how experienced nurses, use a personally unnoticed reflect-in-action during patient encounters whilst also involved with students. The discovery has been termed Métier Artistry. The paper offers a number of examples of Métier Artistry to support its presentation.The outcomes of the research challenge practitioners and educationalists to initially expose, then demonstrate and exploit the full potential of the reflective artistry of professional practice of experienced practitioners for student learning.