This chapter explains what is meant by apprenticeship and formation within the context of professional nursing education and the role of the eight senses in clinical practice. The practice of helping professions such as nursing, medicine, psychology, social work, and the like is one of practical and moral engagement embedded in the professional person relationship and not primarily a matter of carrying out a set of tasks and performing techniques and procedures. Becoming a professional requires having and using skills of social engagement in new ways that are different from how the nurse may use them in personal relationships and casual interactions. Formation occurs over time as nurse deals with new situations, learns about how to deal with different patient and family concerns, and acquires new knowledge and skills within a moral and ethical framework. A major focus of nursing is the need to detect and identify risk before danger occurs.

This chapter describes the relationship between strengths and strengths-based care (SBC) and explains the relationship among strengths, potentials, resources, and resiliency. Nurses need to know a person’s strengths in order to understand how to capitalize and mobilize them in order to support the person during health and illness, and in times of suffering, recovery, and healing. People need strengths to meet goals, get the most out of living, contribute to health and well-being, and facilitate recovery and healing. The concept of strength is often used interchangeably with capability. Counseling psychology and early childhood special education have as their overriding goal the facilitation of growth by focusing on individuals’ innate strengths to promote growth and development. Resiliency then becomes a strength that the person and family can call forth to deal with future physiological and psychological insults and traumas.

This chapter summarizes the theory of moderated guiding, discusses the methodological decisions that influenced the research process, and highlights significant issues. It provides a summary of key points a researcher may wish to consider when designing a study. The main concern of nurses in end-of-life care was different expectations. This was managed using the process of moderated guiding, which included the sub-processes of checking out, which referred to informational understanding and potential alternatives; involving that comprised conversational maneuvering and negotiating choices; and supporting, which included deliberating and safeguarding. In the theory of moderated guiding, participants were chosen because they could talk about nursing practice in end-of-life care. The research began with interviewing nurses in hospices, aged care facilities, and hospitals. The critical issue is the researcher’s willingness to learn from experience and his or her commitment to produce a scholarly piece of work.