"Making special": a framework for understanding the art of holistic nursing

Holistic nurses demonstrate interest in and concern for aesthetics in nursing; however, the relationship of holistic nursing to aesthetics in nursing lacks clarity. Challenges to the study of aesthetics in nursing arise from too little discourse on the topic and lack of consensus on language and methods of inquiry. Nevertheless, aesthetic knowing is a fundamental pattern of knowing in nursing and the one that mediates and integrates all other patterns of knowing in nursing action. A behavioral theory of aesthetics provides a framework for exploring the relationship of holistic nursing to aesthetic knowing and the art of nursing. Synthesis of this framework with holistic nursing core values and standards of practice suggests that holistic nursing is more than perspective; it is an aesthetic.