Using nursing science does not guarantee nursing excellence

Nursing excellence is usually defined in terms of having and applying more and more knowledge, especially from nursing science--the more nurses know, the better their practice. This conceptualization of nursing practice has similarities with the ancient Greek mode of reasoning called techne but cannot adequately deal with the ambiguities of everyday nursing. Nursing excellence does occur, however, with phronetic, ontological practice in which a nurse's morals, habits, and dispositions guide practice. Of course, nurses need a comprehensive knowledge and skill base, but phronetic nurses negotiate the "rough ground" of nursing practice because ontological dispositions are guiding practice rather than simply applying generalizable and communal knowledge from nursing science. Techne-ical practice leads to competent nursing, but only phronetic practice results in nursing excellence. Included in this article is a description of techne-ical practice, its limitations for nursing excellence, and rationale for adopting a phronetic conceptualization of nursing practice.