Nursing practice: what about not knowing?

Abstract

The certainty of nurses’ claims of knowing forms the background for this paper. The purpose of this literature review is to explore how not knowing is conceptualized within literature and nursing practice with a focus on the implications for nurses’ ongoing learning. An exploration of some dominant discourses sheds light on how ‘not knowing’ is resisted and silenced within health care. In naming the tensions around a dichotomous view of ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’ we nurture an openness that encourages questioning: not for the purpose of arriving at an answer but rather to explore possibilities. The relationship between knower and knowledge emerges as an important concept. I suggest that the concept of not knowing, as a way of knowing, has received insufficient attention and merits further research.