“Experiential knowledge”: An epistemological exploration of a widely used expression in the field of health

Among the different forms of knowledge, experiential knowledge is widely used in certain activities in the field of health. Most often connected to patients, it is also discussed in relation to health professionals, but less frequently. This article offers some points of reference and clarifies what underlies experiential knowledge. These points of reference are based on definitions of experience and knowledge, as well as work on the type of knowledge created by experience. An exploration of the contexts in which “experiential knowledge” has emerged and the focus of the disciplines that discuss it finds few epistemological connections between knowledge and experience. In the humanities and social sciences, experiential knowledge is most often connected to patients or adults in educational situations. With regard to nursing knowledge, the analysis of Carper and Lechasseur’s work on the nature of nursing knowledge reveals how the characteristics of experience are integrated into their typologies, particularly when it comes to artistic and personal knowledge. The explicit absence of experience in these typologies is then questioned with regard to the scientific imperatives that nursing science, at this particular period in its construction, is determined to promote.