'The Internet Both Reassures and Terrifies': exploring the more-than-human worlds of health information using the story completion method

Approaches to a crisis in early pregnancy: an explorative qualitative study of medical students and doctors in training in Ireland, using a story completion model

A crisis in early pregnancy can be due to an unplanned pregnancy or a suspected abnormality. Pregnant people have the right to unbiased and comprehensive advice of all options from healthcare providers. Using story completion models (SCM), the aim of this qualitative study was to explore the attitudes of medical students and doctors in training towards crisis pregnancy, specifically two scenarios: early unplanned pregnancy and fatal fetal abnormality (anencephaly). Participants were invited from medical students attending University College Dublin (UCD) and trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) from July to December 2022. SCM involves giving the consenting participant an introduction to a hypothetical situation that acts as the beginning of a story and asking them to complete it. Stories were compiled and analysed using thematic analysis. Research Ethics Committee approval was given by both UCD and the RCPI. The standards for reporting qualitative research guidelines were followed. Eight doctors in training and six medical students consented to participate in the study; all but two medical students completed both stories to the required word count, giving 25 stories for analysis. For both situations, stories described a variety of approaches, all of which were based on the person's, or couple's, wishes, from continuing in pregnancy to deciding to end the pregnancy. SCM allowed detailed analysis of potentially sensitive subjects such as pregnancy options. This study showed that participating medical students and doctors in training recognise that pregnant people have the right to all choices in crisis pregnancy.

The "what, why, and how?" of story completion in health services research: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

The story completion method provides a different way of doing qualitative research. We note the emergent popularity of this method in health-related research, while much remains to be negotiated in terms of best practices for such studies. This scoping review aims to provide a synthesis on how researchers have used the story completion method in health services research. We offer implications for research and practice for further discussion by the scholarly community.

METHODS

We used the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Six databases were searched for published literature till March 1, 2023: Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SAGE Journals Online databases, and SAGE Research Methods. We included primary studies of any study design using the story completion method in health services research.

RESULTS

A total of 17 studies were included. Findings suggest that the story completion method is useful for research on sensitive topics, and affords the use of comparative study designs and large sample sizes which may be difficult with conventional qualitative research methods. More than 80% of included studies used story completion as the sole method. However, the data collected from this method were limited in terms of the inferences that can be drawn; and richness of participant responses may vary widely. Less than 30% of included studies reported piloting of the story stems. Most studies were conducted online and analyzed qualitatively, though the story stem design and sample size varied widely.

CONCLUSION

The story completion method, with its attendant affordances for larger sample sizes, comparative study designs, and streamlined data collection is an innovative and useful stand-alone or adjunct qualitative method for health services research.

Qualitative Story Completion: Opportunities and Considerations for Health Research

Qualitative story completion (QSC) is an innovative research method that offers researchers a range of unique opportunities for generating and analysing data. Participants are asked to write a 'story' in response to a hypothetical 'story stem', often in the third-person and involving fictional characters, rather than reporting on their direct experiences. QSC is being developed and increasingly taken up by researchers working across a range of fields; but it has been little used in health research, especially in the fields of nursing, health services research, medicine, and allied health. This means that health researchers have few examples to draw on when considering what QSC can offer them and how to rigorously design, conduct, and report a QSC study within health-related fields. We aim to address this gap and contribute to existing QSC literature by promoting increased use of QSC by health researchers and supporting them to produce rigorous QSC research. We outline three case examples illustrating how we have used QSC to conduct multidisciplinary health research relevant to nursing, medicine and nutrition. Drawing on these case examples, we reflect on challenges that we encountered, describe decision-making processes, and offer recommendations for conducting rigorous health research using QSC.

Tactics, affects and agencies in digital privacy narratives: a story completion study

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from the Digital Privacy Story Completion Project, which investigated Australian participants' understandings of and responses to digital privacy scenarios using a novel method and theoretical approach.

Design/methodology/approach

The story completion method was brought together with De Certeau's concept of tactics and more-than-human theoretical perspectives. Participants were presented with four story stems on an online platform. Each story stem introduced a fictional character confronted with a digital privacy dilemma. Participants were asked to complete the stories by typing in open text boxes, responding to the prompts “How does the character feel? What does she/he do? What happens next?”. A total of 29 participants completed the stories, resulting in a corpus of 116 narratives for a theory-driven thematic analysis.

Findings

The stories vividly demonstrate the ways in which tactics are entangled with relational connections and affective intensities. They highlight the micropolitical dimensions of human–nonhuman affordances when people are responding to third-party use of their personal information. The stories identified the tactics used and boundaries that are drawn in people's sense-making concerning how they define appropriate and inappropriate use of their data.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates the value and insights of creatively attending to personal data privacy issues in ways that decentre the autonomous tactical and agential individual and instead consider the more-than-human relationality of privacy.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-05-2020-0174