The road less travelled-a reflection on the use of narrative inquiry in nursing

1. The road less travelled-a reflection on the use of narrative inquiry in nursing N.Radana – Postgraduate candidate C. Engelbrecht- School of Nursing

2. Outline of presentation Introduction What is narrative inquiry Narrative data analysis (very briefly) Challenges encountered Lessons learnt Conclusion Thank you

3. Introduction Story telling is as old as human existence and at any given time human beings live multi-storied lives (Lai,2010;Freshwater&Holloway,2007). Different types of narratives or story telling have been used in the African context to understand and make sense of experiences.

4. Introduction • These range from metaphors,artefacts,poetry,myths and the use of figurative terms (White,1992,Zinchenko,Pruzhinin & Shchedrina, 2011). • Within the psychological literature however the concept of applying metaphors takes on a more important and much richer role.

5. Introduction . According to Zinchenko,Pruzhinin,Shchedrina (2011:81) “metaphors and semantic images help to bring to life existing constructs or concepts of meaning…” This means that making use of a metaphor not only brings more meaning to what is explained or said but assists with the understanding or explanation. In the context of this paper, metaphors show how the use of language can enrich a situation within the African context by displaying different layers of meaning.

6. What is narrative inquiry Various researchers maintain that experiences cannot be quantified as in traditional methods of research (Saunders.2007;Grigoratos,2006;Holloway&Freshwater,2000). Narrative inquiry and narrative research are relatively new methods of the qualitative research approach and as such not much is known about them compared to other better known approaches.

7. What is narrative inquiry Narrative inquiry is a “way of understanding experience. It is collaboration between researcher and participants, over time, in a place or series of places and in social interaction within a milieu…simply stated narrative inquiry is stories lived and told” (Clandinin&Connelly, 2000:20). Narrative inquiry through the study of experiences seeks to enrich and transform life experiences, not only for the participants, but for the researchers as well (Clandinin& Rosiek,2007;White,1995).

8. What is narrative inquiry This transformation results in the reconstruction of an individual’s preferred stories and experiences in his relationships and social milieu (Morgan,2000; White,1995;Clandinin&Connelly,2000). Narrative inquiry not only looks at experiences of the participants, but seeks to explore the social, cultural as well as organisational or institutional narratives within which the individual’s experiences were constituted,shaped,expressed and enacted (White,1995;Clandinin&Connelly,2000;Foucault,2003).

9. Narrative data analysis Data analysis in narrative inquiry has no clear cut methodology. It is broad based with procedures and processes used having been drawn from different scholars in various disciplines (Riessman,1993;Lieblich,Tuval-Mashiach&Zilber,1998;Priest,Roberts&Woods,2002; Kelly&Howie,2007;Grigoratos,2007).

10. Challenges experienced The first challenge was with data collection and interviewing. Stopping the flow of talk may lead to fractured narrative ,and selecting which parts to be used or reported may lead to bias. Bleakley advises researchers to look at data collection as a medium of active knowledge construction (Bleakley,2005:537). This advise was taken into account when conducting the study.

11. Challenges experienced Data interpretation- how do you begin to interpret somebody else’s subjective account of his life? While there are various approaches according to different scholars, it is not simple. Constant reflection and decisions need to be made about whose story it is (Lai,2010;Bleakley,2005;Savin-Baden&Van Niekerk,2007;Riessman,1993).

12. Challenges experienced This constant reflection includes going back to the participants and confirming with them if that was their intended meaning. Several authors agree that certain attributes are central to the quality of qualitative narrative inquiry (Lincoln&Guba,1994;Riessman,1993;Bleakley,2005;Kelly&Howie,2007;Savin-Baden & Van Niekerk,2007;Priest,Roberts & Woods,2002;Moen,2006;Lai,2010).

13. Challenges experienced The question of truth- whose truth is the real truth, how do you tell if the participant is telling the truth? In view of the post-modernistic philosophical assumption upon which the study was based there is no one complete truth, but rather multiple truths depending on context (White,1995). What is of importance is to see each other’s truths in a way that will bring new insights as to what happened by understanding how the person telling the story viewed that particular event (Wielenga,2010).

14. Lessons learnt Stories can not be monologue in nature. Within one main story there are sub-stories which will always be interwoven and intertwined. Do you then as a researcher extract that which you need? Does that add to the wholesomeness of the story? The context greatly influences the story being told.

15. Lessons learnt This African mode of knowledge generation can be quite liberating and exhilarating, but it can be a big task having to link it with modern day methods. This therefore requires constant reflection to ensure that the study is above reproach. Narrative inquiry is ideal for nursing research as it takes into account the complexity of emotions, verbal and non-verbal cues, gestures and expressions. In other words it looks at the holistic form.

16. Lessons learnt Using narrative inquiry helps in gaining new insights and empathic understanding of what is happening or has happened. It is this empathic understanding that leads to shifting of boundaries between ‘them’ as participants (students) and us as researchers (expects). There is a sense of one on one engagement; human being to human being.

17. Lessons learnt The sharing of the stories can be cathartic, as the process of sharing and searching for meaning may bring healing where it’s needed and ‘new realisations’ on how to deal with the phenomenon in question. New shared stories or alternative stories are created as the participants relate their experiences and listen to each other, leading to a point where they are able to gain control over the situation.

18. Conclusion Constant reflection on the part of the researcher is necessary in narrative research. This includes the use of the attributes described earlier viz: critical engagement,honesty,integrity,trustworthiness,credibility and sensitivity. These are of paramount importance if narrative inquiry is to be viewed as a scientific mode of inquiry with credibility and above reproach.

19. THANK YOU Have a nice day