BIOGRAPHY AND THEORY

OF PATRICIA BENNER
Prepared by:
Lyka Toca
BSN - 1
Patricia E. Benner
 R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., F.R.C.N.
All about Patricia Benner
She was born in Hampton, Virginia, and
spent her childhood in California.
A Professor in the Department of
Physiological Nursing in the School of
Nursing at the University of California, San
Francisco. An internationally noted
researcher and lecturer on health, stress and
coping, skill acquisition and ethics. Her work
has had wide influence on nursing.
 She has been a staff nurse in the areas of
medical-surgical, emergency room, coronary
care, intensive care units and home care.
She was interested in the Dreyfus model of
skill acquisition and applied it to nursing.  Her
area of concern was not how to do nursing but,
rather, "how do nurses learn to do nursing?" 
She worked for several years in intensive care.
Dr. Benner is the author of nine books
including ......
The Nine Books of Pat
From Novice to Expert, named an American
Journal of Nursing Book of the Year for nursing
education and nursing research in 1984.
The Primacy of Caring, co-authored with Judith
Wrubel, named Book of the Year in 1990, also in
two categories.
Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment,
Caring and Ethics in Health and Illness, and
The Crisis of Care, with Susan Phillips, both
published in 1994.
Expertise in Nursing Practice: Caring,
Clinical Judgment, and Ethics, with
Christine Tanner and Catherine Chesla, also
named a Book of the Year in 1996.
 Caregiving, with Suzanne Gordon and Nel
Noddings, also published in 1996.
To be published in December, 1998, is Clinical
Wisdom and Interventions in Critical Care:
A Thinking-In-Action Approach, with Pat
Hooper-Kyriakidis and Daphne Stannard.
Research and Current Projects
She is currently the Director of a National Nursing
Education Research Project under the auspices of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement in
Teaching. This research project is part of a larger
project that studies the preparation for the
professions (PPP). The project requires 60% of her
time which is paid for by the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement in Teaching. This is the first
national study of nursing education for the past 30
years. The Project is beginning the second year of a
three year period of funding.
Dr. Benner is Co-Principal Director of the project
entitled "Clinical Knowledge Development of Nurses
in an Operational environment." The project seeks to
address three research aims: 1. To articulate,
describe, and interpret experiential learning
regarding medical and nursing care during combat
operations in order to evaluate and extend this
knowledge. 2. To provide narratives of combat
practice that could assist in the design and teaching
of combat health care. 3. To create a collection of
narratives around practice topics or issues that are
identified that can be published as a learning
resource for nurses.
She is completing a 6 year research project to
develop a taxonomy of nursing error and a
data collection instrument for the National
Council of State Boards of Nursing Entitled
"The Taxonomy of Root Cause Analysis for
Practice Responsibility" (TERCAP). This data
collection tool is now being implemented
nationally by State Boards of Nursing. A
monograph on this work will be published in
2006.
2002-2005.  Genomics Education for Advanced
Practice Nurses $308,663 This training grant is
designed to develop new advanced practice nurse
specialists who can provide needed quality health
care and education in genomics nursing in the
following areas: dual specialty clinical nurse
specialists and nurse practitioners, doctorally
prepared nurse educators, and practicing nurse
clinicians.
2004-2007.  National Study of Nursing Education,
Funded by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching. $434,341 salary reimbursement for
three years.
2005-2006.  Data collection to begin in October,
2005 "Clinical Knowledge Development of Nurses
in an Operational Environment" (Funding
Approved, Human Subjects Protocol Approved)
Federal Nursing Branch, Washington D.C., $176,
000 20% effort as Co-P.I.
2003-2005.  "Values Ethics and Rationing in ICUs"
A National Task Force. $24,000 allocated to Patricia
Benner/UCSF to do a qualitative study of everyday
management of cost constraints and limitations in
ICUs. Funded by the Eli Lilly Company.
2002-2005.  National Council of State Boards of
Nursing. Developing a Taxonomy of nursing error
and data collection tool for a national data base on
nursing errors reported to State Boards of Nursing:
$60,000.
2002-2006.  Health Policy for Advanced Practice
Nurses Grant #6D09 HP 00326. The goal of this
program is to address existing gaps in nursing
education and practice expertise in the area of
Health Policy. $624,259.  P. I. Charlene Harrington
Honors/Awards
1964 Dr. Benner received her bachelor's degree in
nursing from Pasadena College.
1970 she received her master's degree in medical
surgical nursing from the University of California,
San Francisco, and the Ph.D. from the University of
California, Berkeley, in Stress and Coping and
Health under the direction of Hubert Dreyfus and
Richard Lazarus.
1999  Excellence in Caring Award, Yale University
1999  Book of the Year Award in the categories of
Critical Care and Emergency, Research, and
Advanced Practice, American Journal of Nursing,
for Benner, P., Hooper-Kyriakidid P., Stannard, D.
Clinical Wisdom and Interventions in Critical Care.
A thinking-In-Action Approach.
2002  Recognition of Outstanding Contributions
to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing
2002  Thelma Shobe Endowed Chair, Ethics and
Spirituality. UCSF, Department of Social and
Behavioural Sciences.
2003  Benner, P. The Institute for Nursing Health
Care Leadership, Boston, MA: Celebration of 20
years of collecting and extending clinical wisdom,
experiential learning, and caring practices
2004  Ross Products-American Association of
Critical Care Nurses Pioneering Spirit Award,
recognizing significant contributions that
influence acute and critical care nursing
2004  Sage Award for Contributions to Nursing
Leadership, Center for Nursing Leadership,
University of Minnesota October 10-12, 2004.
Books
1999  Benner, P., Hooper-Kyriakides, P.,
Stannard, D. Clinical Wisdom and
Interventions in Critical Care: A thinking-In-
Action Approach.
2002  The nursing narratives for reflecting
on ethical and clinical judgment. (In Press)
Shorinsa Publishers, June.
2004  The use of nursing narratives for
reflecting on ethical and clinical judgment. (In
Press) Shorinsha Publishers.
2006 in progress:  Malloch, K., Benner, P.,
Weeks, V. "A Taxonomy of Nursing Error:
Strategies for reducing nursing error in
nursing practice." (Manuscript in final editing
phase.) National Council of State Boards of
Nursing. To be published in 2006.
Original Articles
2000  Benner, P. Developing clinical expertise in
undergraduate education. Expert Nurse. (In
Japanese) 12(15) 107-113.
2000  Emami, W., Benner, P., Ekman, S.L. A
sociocultural health model for late-in-life
immigrants. Journal of Transcultural Nursing.
12(1), 15-24.
2001  Puntillo, K.A., Benner, P., Drought, t., Drew,
B., Stotts, Stannard, D., Rushton, C., White, C.
End-of-life issues in intensive care units: A
national random survey on nurses' knowledge and
beliefs. American Journal of Critical Care. 10(4),
216-299.
2002  Benner, P., Sheetw, V., Uris, P., Malloch, K.,
Schwed, K., & Jamison, D. Individual, practice, and
system causes of errors in nursing: A taxonomy.
Journal of Nursing Research. 32(10), 509-523.
2002  Weiss, S.M., Malone, R.e., Merighi, J.R., &
Benner, P. Economism, efficiency, and the moral
ecology of good nursing practice. Canadian Journal
of Nursing Research. 34(2), 95-119.
2002  Benner, P. Using the Dreyfus Model of Skill
Acquisition to describe and interpret skill
acquisition and clinical judgment in nursing
practice and education. (In Press) The Bulletin of
Science, Technology and Society.
In Press.  Spichiger, E., Wallhagen, M., Benner, P.
"Nursing as a caring practice from a phenomenological
perspective." Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences.
Dracup, K. Cronenwett, L., Benner, P., Meleis, A.,
"Reflections on the Doctorate of Nursing Practice."
Nursing Outlook. (In Press, Sept. 2005)
2005  Harrington, C., Crider, M.C., Benner, P., Malone,
R. "Advanced nursing training in health policy:
Designing and implementing a new program." Policy,
Politics & Nursing Practice 6(2) May 2005., 99-108.
2005  Benner, P. "Using the Dreyfus Model of Skill
Acquisition to describe and interpret skill acquisition
and clinical judgment in nursing practice and
education." The Bulletin of Science, Technology and
Society Special Issue: Human Expertise in the Age of
the Computer. Vol. 24 (3) 188-199
Note: LISTEN CAREFULLY!!
What did Patricia Benner
said about her theory?
FROM NOVICE TO EXPERT:
Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice
Metaparadigm in Nursing
according to
Patricia Benner
Nursing
described as a caring relationship ,an
“enabling condition of connection and concern”
a caring practice whose science is guided
by the moral art and ethics of care and
responsibility.
the care and the study of lived experience
of health ,illness and disease and the
relationships among these three elements.
Person
is a self interpreting being .also a person has
an effortless and nonreflective understanding of
the self in the world.
Four major aspects of understanding that the
person must deal with:
The role of the situation
The role of the body
The role of personal concerns
The role of temporality
Health
is defined as what can be assessed, whereas
wellbeing is the human experience of health or
wholeness. Well-being and being ill is
understood as distinct ways of being in the world.
is described as not just the absence of
disease and illness also a person may have a
disease but not experience, because illness is the
human experience of loss and dysfunction
,whereas disease is what can be assessed at the
physical level.
Situation
Use this term rather than environment, it
conveys a social environment with social definition
and meaningfulness.
They use the phenomenological terms
being situated and situated meaning., which
are defined by the person’s engaged interaction
,interpretation and understanding of the
situation.
“personal interpretation of the situation is
bounded by the way the individual is in it”
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!