nursing. These calls are specific mechanisms that
persons use while allowing the nurse to respond
with authentic intentions to know them fully as
persons in the moment. Calls for nursing may be
expressed in various ways, oftentimes as hopes and
dreams, such as hoping to be with friends while re-
cuperating in the hospital, or desiring to play the
piano when his or her fingers are well enough to
function effectively, or simply the ultimate desire to
go home, or the wish to die peacefully. As uniquely
as these calls for nursing are expressed, the nurse
knows the person continuously moment to mo-
ment. Communicating the created nursing re-
sponses may be as patterns of relating information,
such as those derived from machines like the EKG
monitor, in order to know the physiological status
of the person in the moment or to administer life-
saving medications, institute transfer plans, or
refer patients for services to other health-care
The entirety of nursing is to direct, focus,
attain, sustain, and maintain the person.professionals. The entirety of nursing is to direct,
focus, attain, sustain, and maintain the person. In
doing so, hearing calls for nursing is continuous
and momentarily complete.
Knowing persons allows the nurse to use tech-
nologies in articulating calls for nursing. The em-
pirical, personal, ethical, and aesthetic ways of
knowing that are fundamental to understanding
persons as whole increase the likelihood of know-
ing persons in the moment. As unpredictable and
As unpredictable and dynamic, human
beings are ever-changing moment to
moment.dynamic, human beings are ever-changing moment
to moment. This characteristic challenges the nurse
to know persons continuously as wholes, discour-
aging and ceasing the traditional conception of
possibly knowing persons completely at once, in
order to prescribe and predict their expressions of
wholeness. In continuously knowing persons as
whole through articulated technologies in nursing,
the nurse can perhaps intervene to facilitate pa-
tients’ recognition of the person’s wholeness in the
moment.
The purpose of this chapter is to describe and
explain “knowing persons as whole,” a frame-
work of nursing guiding a practice grounded
in the theoretical construct oftechnological
competency as caring in nursing (Locsin,
2004). This framework of practice illumi-
nates the harmonious relationship between
technology competency and caring in nurs-
ing. In this model, the focus of nursing is the
person.
Critical to understanding the phenome-
non of technological competency as caring in
nursing are the conceptual descriptions of
technology, caring, and nursing. Assump-
tions about human beings as persons, nurs-
ing as caring, and technological competency
are presented as foundational to the process
of knowing persons as whole in the mo-
ment—a process of nursing grounded in the
perspective of technological competency as
caring in nursing.
The process of knowing persons as whole
is explicated as technological efficiency in
nursing practice. The model of practice is il-
lustrated through the understanding of tech-
nology and caring as coexisting in nursing.
The process of knowing persons is continu-
ous. In this process of nursing, with calls and
responses, the nurse and nursed come to
know each other more fully as persons in the
moment. Grounding the process is the appre-
ciation of persons as whole and complete in
the moment, of human beings as unpre-
dictable, of technological competency as an
expression of caring in nursing, and of nurs-
ing as critical to health care.References
Boykin, A., & Schoenhofer, S. (2001).Nursing as caring: A model
for transforming practice. New York: Jones and Bartlett,
National League for Nursing Press.
Carper, B. (1978). Fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing.
Advances in Nursing Science, 1(1), 13–24.
Daniels, L. (1998). Vulnerability as a key to authenticity.Image:
Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 30(2), 191–192.
Heidegger, M. (1977).The question concerning technology.New
York: Harper and Row.
Hudson, R. (1988). Whole or parts—a theological perspectiveCHAPTER 24 Technological Competency as Caring and the Practice of Knowing Persons as Whole 387