Cave P (1998) Nursing knowledge: the role of Plato in wound care. Nursing Standard. 13, 11, 40-43

This article has been subject to double-blind review. According to Watson (1997), the aim of reflective practice is to inform and transform nursing practice. Good nursing practice requires knowledge, both in terms of knowing that, for example, venous leg ulcers may need compression bandaging, as well as knowing how, for example, to apply such bandaging. However, careful reflection on such knowledge and quite why it is so important in nursing practice, is minimal and sometimes wrong. To grasp fully the concept of knowledge, it is necessary to understand the perhaps baffling issue of ‘non-existent states of affairs’. To understand how this relates to nursing professionalism and acting in patients’ best interests, the concept is considered here in relation to wound care and how the non-existent affects what underlies good practice in this field.