Nurses' Hidden Knowledge Gaps and Their Impact on Patient Care

Many healthcare workers carry assumptions that end up backing up existing problems rather than solving them. This occurs when their grasp of social and political realities is constrained by scarce resources, embedded institutional biases, personal burnout, and a feeling of being disconnected from peers. Such limitations create a disconnect between professional insight and genuine patient benefit.

Scholars studied this issue by interviewing twenty-six registered nurses working in diverse clinical and educational environments across New Zealand. The team also organized focus groups and collected insights from key informants. Analysis focused on communicative action principles, epistemic injustice theories, and critical constructivist ideas.