Benner is a professor emerita at the University of California, San Francisco UCSF School of Nursing.
[3] She wrote her influential book, From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice, in 1984, based on her work with the AMICAE Project.
[2] Working with Judith Wrubel in 1989, Benner expanded her model to incorporate the concept of caring with the stages of skill acquisition.
The Living Legends designation honors individuals with "extraordinary contributions to the nursing profession, sustained over the course of their careers.
[6] Along with her most renowned book she also has written, Expertise in Nursing Practice: Caring, Clinical Judgement and Ethics, Clinical Wisdom and Interventions in Critical Care: A thinking-In-action Approach, and, Stress and Satisfaction on the Job: Work Meanings and Coping of Mid-Career Men.
As one collects more concrete experiences, they are then able to use these as paradigms rather than abstract principles, which also leads to an increase in critical thinking.
Such a change in perception will then open up a new level of thinking that is based on each situation and is more holistic, rather than abstract and pieced-together knowledge that a novice might have.