It is a review of literature on nursing knowledge that has its main focus on the classification of the four patterns of knowledge identified and proposed by Carper: empirical, ethical, esthetic, and personal. Research material was made up of articles published in national and international periodicals in the two last decades of the 20th century. The analysis points towards the extension of patterns of knowledge, with the addition of three others, besides those initially proposed: sociopolitical, historical, and the unknown.
classification; knowledge; nursing