Hi Joyce,
Yes, you are correct and we do share some common insights about emergence as a part of the development of both practical knowledge while undertaking work and that it must be continuous and intentional if it will amount to anything. For me there is a creative dimension in the sense that to interrogate practice one must be willing to delve for truth and this often takes another to listen, to ask questions and to work through the process of reflecting in and on action. Sometimes it happens when you least expect it, at other times, I have found this practice only when push comes to shove and one has to reflect for one reason or another.
My undergraduate degree is in Nursing and I worked in clinical practice (intenstive care, surgery and pediatric surgery) for a total of 6 years then in public health for another 5 followed by the emergence of my consulting practice after my graduate degree (still in the health sector).
Depending on the practice context, clinical reasoning in my experience takes place in association with the practice of dealing with the patient or client or family or community. It is a complex, reasoning process that entails inductive and deductive reasoning happening at the same time and sometimes very quickly in actue settings. What is interesting is that good clinical reasoning includes "critical thinking" and this includes rigorous habits such as analysis, inferential, evaluative, predictive, and explanatory thinking all in order to make sound clinical decisions in context. The intent is to resolve the particular clinical problem and treat/care for the patient/client as said with their safety uppermost in mind. Clinical reasoning is highly intentional processing and done by an individual and in certain situations by a team who "reason together". There is an "emergent" dimension to some situations in clinical practice where the patient's condition is in constant flux and responds based on judgements that are being made almost simultaneously. It can be a full-body experience in the sense that after all is said and done, a person can feel emotion, physical, cognitive and social exhastion. (no wonder I used to go home and collapse!). I am sure you have seen and or experienced this in your own professional work. I think that emergent learning (as I am learning about it in this seminar) can happen at the same time as clinical reasoning but how this all "happens" together and in fact how it might be similar to but different from clinical reasoning as I experienced it, I need to give more thought to! It has been years since I have "recalled" this kind of "work" and so, now I am once again curious : )
cheers,
Barb