The Emotional Risks of Turning Stories into Data: An Exploration of the Experiences of Qualitative Researchers Working on Sensitive Topics

A great deal of research has been undertaken into areas involving sensitive topics. In spite of longstanding acceptance that such research can be emotionally risky for participants, interest in the impact of this work on the researcher has only relatively recently become a topic of concern. This paper reports on a roundtable convened with qualitative researchers working in sensitive research areas. The article explores their views in relation to the emotional risks they encountered in relation to their work. A grounded theory, thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and comparisons are made between researcher experiences and those highlighted by earlier studies. We illuminate how researchers described personal concerns about the emotional risks, before focusing on how the researcher’s sense of professionalism contributed to, or protected against, these emotional risks and emotions. This paper also discusses the faltering nature of the support provided to these researchers and the challenges created by the need they felt to create impactful research. The authors conclude by arguing that current support and guidance provided to researchers working in sensitive areas fails to address the complexity of the emotional reaction of the researcher. We call for the development of specialised training and improved use of theoretical concepts such as emotion work, to guide those undertaking this challenging work.

Interdisciplinary arts and health practice with an institutional logics perspective

Background: Investigating the interdisciplinary relationships between stakeholders engaged in arts and health practice in the UK and Denmark, specifically with regard to institutional logics theory. The identified stakeholders: health professionals, museum educators and mental health service users. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 participants: health professionals, museum educators and service users. Data were collected in Denmark and the UK. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data and theoretical lenses of sociological theories, and institutional logics explored the findings. Results: The interdisciplinary work in arts and health is complex, given the different disciplines and institutions involved. Findings illustrate that institutional logics play a vital and ambiguous part in arts and health practice and that this presents a challenge for interdisciplinary working in the field. Conclusions: Awareness of the complexity of multiple logics in the arts and health field; recognising the differences between disciplines and institutions could benefit from research and practice.

I am only a nurse: a biographical narrative study of a nurse's self-understanding and its implication for practice

BACKGROUND

The personal is a vital part of professional nursing practice. From a psycho-social perspective, nurses produce and reproduce conceptions of the Self through experience. A literature search on nurses' self-understanding in a psycho-social perspective yields no results. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate personal and professional experiences that may have formed the self-understanding of a nurse, and how this self-understanding may have influenced her professional practice.

METHODS

Using a single case approach, I conducted a Biographical Narrative Interview with a 50-year-old experienced Norwegian nurse. I asked the nurse to tell me the story of her life and how her work has affected her and possibly changed the way she saw herself. The overall aim of the interpretation was to understand the historically situated subjectivity in terms of the nurse's personal, social and professional constraints and chosen options.

RESULTS

The nurse's narrative of her life story made it possible to trace a common theme throughout her experiences, the experience of being "only a nurse". The nurse experienced a low status, as well as a downgrade in the competence needed to deliver quality care in professional relationships. She felt it difficult to identify with the experience of being on the bottom of the social ladder and to identify with the female, mothering ideal connected to nursing. She desired a better position, and wanted to identify with strong women. In contrast to reality, her self-understanding influenced her relationship with her patients, her professional pride and her further professional development.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that the professional practice of a nurse was informed by her self-understanding. This study suggests that the individual nurse must be given the opportunity to explore her professional vulnerability based on the assumption that it is both personally and socially constituted. This study indicates that the exploration of a nurse's self-understanding is one way to contribute to professional development.

The provision of end-of-life care by medical-surgical nurses working in acute care: a literature review

OBJECTIVE

Caring for terminally ill patients is complex, stressful, and at times distressing for nurses. Acute care hospitals continue to be the predominant place of death for terminally ill patients in most Western countries. The objective of the present literature review was to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of the experience of providing end-of-life (EOL) care by medical-surgical RNs working in acute care hospitals, to identify knowledge gaps, and to recommend future research.

METHOD

A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the following electronic databases: CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsyInfo (from 1992 to October 2012).

RESULTS

The findings from the 16 reviewed studies suggest that nurses felt a strong commitment to help terminally ill patients experience a good death. Nurses reported feeling deeply rewarded and privileged to share the EOL experience with patients/families. Organizational and individual factors influenced nurses' experience. Important challenges were associated with managing the divergent needs of a mixed patient load (i.e., curative and palliative care patients) in a biomedical culture of care that is heavily oriented toward cure and recovery. In this culture, nurses' emotional work and ideals of good EOL care are often not recognized and supported.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS

Managerial and organizational support that recognize the centrality of emotional work nurses provide to dying patients is needed. More research exploring ways to improve communication among nurses and medical colleagues is essential. Finally, a critical examination of the ideological assumptions guiding nurses' practice of EOL care within the context of acute care is recommended to help reveal their powerful influence in shaping nurses' overall understanding and experience of EOL care.