Abstract

Throughout the centuries, individuals have engaged in a variety of acts to arrive at a greater understanding of wisdom. These acts have centered around two primary activities. The first was to reflect upon wisdom and ultimately document those reflections. The second was to engage in empirical, scientific inquiry, in order to describe and explain the nature of wisdom. ;In recent years, contemporary Western inquiry has focused on understanding wisdom's multidimensional nature, describing its affective, cognitive, and conative elements. Kramer took the existing knowledge base and developed a model of wisdom utilizing an organismic framework. The framework supports a model of wisdom that allows its multidimensional nature to be integrated, dynamic and moving--a process unfolding over time. Mecham presented the idea of wisdom as it exists within interpersonal relationships, where knowledge is put to use. ;The purpose of this inquiry was to reveal the unfolding meaning of the wisdom experience for the patient who considered his or her nurse to be wise, within the context of the nurse-patient relationship. Three individuals volunteered to participate in the inquiry and were interviewed. Each participant was asked to reflect on a time when they were involved in an experience of wisdom with a nurse whom they will never forget, a nurse whom they considered to be wise. Participants were asked to describe that experience and what it meant at the time the experience initially occurred as well as what the experience meant over time. ;The ontological philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer was the approach used to come to a new understanding of the wisdom experience. Interpretation of the narratives presented two constitutive patterns: Transformation as a moment in time and transformation as unfolding/evolving moments in time. Both patterns consisted of themes that uncovered shared patterns and practices of the wisdom experience. The interpretation of the narratives also revealed meanings that the participants shared. The shared meanings have been discussed in this inquiry as presence, illumination, enlightenment, and empowerment