Knowledge Management: Organizing Nursing Care Knowledge, Essay Example

Knowledge management is a complex concept in nursing because health care professionals are expected to accumulate knowledge in a number of ways (Anderson et al., 2009). The basis of knowledge is acquired during undergraduate and graduate level training. Here, nurses begin to understand the functioning of the body in addition to the role that medical care plays into the maintenance or improvement of health. Next, through internships or field experience, these individuals reinforce this knowledge and gain new understandings through their observations of real-world medical cases. However, accumulation of knowledge is not complete at this point; as professionals, nurses in training and professional nurses are expected to subscribe to and read professional journals to help them gain an evolving conceptualization of their role in the field.

While a majority of knowledge management is concrete, it is also important to understand the tacit knowledge management that is an integral part of the organizational culture of a health care institution. Tacit knowledge is implied or unspoken knowledge, and is regularly used as a mode of communication between staff members despite the fact that they are unaware they are using it (Kathari et al., 2012). Tacit knowledge has also been incorporated into aspects of public health as well. Ultimately, we use this implied knowledge to guide our explicit knowledge, which we can more accurately frame and therefore use to create intervention programs or other quality improvement initiatives. Nurses can help the development of both tacit and explicit knowledge by regularly communicating with their employees about patient cases and other aspects of hospital culture. Since both forms of information are associated, knowledge can be managed by a health care institution by understanding the relationship between these two types of understandings in a manner that promotes a positive environment for patients and employees.

References

Anderson JA, Willson P. (2009). Knowledge management: organizing nursing care knowledge. Crit Care Nurs Q., 32(1):1-9

Kothari A, Rudman D, Dobbins M, Rouse M, Sibbald S, Edwards N. (2012). The use of tacit and explicit knowledge in public health: a qualitative study. Implementation Science, 7: 20.