A concept analysis of personal knowledge: application to nursing education

Area of Science:

• Epistemology
• Educational Theory
• Nursing Education

Background:

• Personal knowledge is foundational to human understanding and learning.
• Existing definitions lack a comprehensive, inclusive framework.
• Polanyi's and Belenky's concepts inform the need for a broader definition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a concept analysis of personal knowledge using the Walker and Avant method.
• To develop a definition of personal knowledge free from discriminatory factors.
• To integrate personal knowledge into nursing education.

Main Methods:

• Concept analysis based on Polanyi's personal knowledge and Belenky's constructed knowledge.
• Extrapolation of a working definition from existing literature.
• Hypothesizing empirical referents from nursing, social work, and education literature.

Main Results:

• Knowledge is defined as pattern recognition, potentially probabilistic.
• Personal knowledge is the recognition of a new pattern via human processing.
• Processing involves diverse interactions, intuition, appraisal, comprehension, and judgment.

Conclusions:

• Personal knowledge is perceived through multifaceted human processing.
• A proposed definition supports inclusive educational environments.
• Integrating personal knowledge enhances nursing education through barrier-free frameworks.