This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Holloway, I. Articles by Freshwater, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Vulnerable story telling: narrative research in nursing

Centre for Qualitative Research, School of Health and Social Care Community Studies, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth BH1 3LT Dorset, UK

Dawn Freshwater

School of Healthcare, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, d.freshwater{at}leeds.ac.uk

The aim of this paper is to explore the notion of the vulnerable in telling their stories. There are many reasons for vulnerable people to tell their stories, some of which are described here. Through stories, participants in research come to understand their experience, legitimise their behaviour and share their emotional experience with others in holistic form which is not `fractured' or disrupted by researchers. Stories of people in physical or mental pain, or of those who experience illness and disability, are not often heard; narrative inquiry centres on their perspectives and perceptions. The authors attempt to show that in the telling of stories, research participants have the potential to regain the power to shape their own world and identity. It also demonstrates that there is more than one reality, beyond the beliefs and perspectives of health professionals. The focus of the paper is on the role of narrative research in nursing and the way in which it enhances the understanding of professionals in order to engage with vulnerability and assist vulnerable people.

Key Words: narrative research • storying • emotional experience • vulnerability • power relations • effect of culture

References

• Atkinson, P., Silverman, D. (1997) Kundera's immortality: the interview society and the invention of the self. Qualitative Inquiry 3(3): 304—325.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Baudrillard, J. (1983) Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e) Transl. Foss P., Patton P. Betchman P.
• Brody, H. (2003) Stories of Sickness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Cobley, P. (2001) Narrative. London: Routledge.
• Coffey, A., Atkinson, P. (1996) Making Sense of Qualitative Data: Complementary Research Strategies. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Elliott, J. (2005) Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. London: Sage.
• Frank, A.W. (1995) The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness and Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Frank, A.W. (2000) The standpoint of storyteller. Qualitative Health Research 10(3): 354—365.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Garro, L.C. (2000) Cultural knowledge as resource in illness narratives: remembering through accounts of illness. In Mattingly, C., Garro, L.C. (eds.). Narrative and the Cultural Construction of Illness and Healing, pp. 70—87. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Holloway, I., Freshwater, D. (2007) Narrative Research in Nursing Oxford: Blackwell (Publishing).
• Holloway, I., Sofaer, B., Walker, J. (2000) The transition from well person to `pain afflicted' patient: the career of people with chronic back pain. Illness, Crisis and Loss 8(4): 373—387.
• Howarth, A. (2006) The experience of aromatherapy massage for patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. Unpublished PhD thesis: Bournemouth University.
• Hunter, K.M. (1991) Doctors' Stories: The Narrative Structure of Medical Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Jovchelovitch, S., Bauer M.W. (2000) Narrative interviewing. In Bauer M.W., Gaskell, G. (eds.). Qualitative Interviewing with Text, Image and Sound, pp. 57—74. London: Sage.
• Kellas, J.K., Manusov, V. (2003) What's in a story? The relationship between narrative completeness and adjustment to relationship dissolution. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 20(3): 285—307.[Abstract]
• Lyotard, J.F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Parsons, T. (1951) The Social System. New York: Free Press.
• Pennebaker, J.W. (2000) Telling stories: The health benefits of narrative. Literature and Medicine 19(1): 3—18.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Polkinghorne, D.E. (1995) Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. In Hatch, J.A., Wisniewski, R. (eds.). Life History and Narrative. London: Falmer Press.
• Porter Abbott, H. (2002) The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Richardson, L. (1990) Narrative and sociology. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 19(1): 116—135.[Free Full Text]
• Ricoeur, P. (1986) Time and Narrative. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Riessman, C.K. (1993) Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park: Sage.
• Rolfe, G. (2005) Evidence, memory and truth: towards a deconstructive validation of reflective practice. In Johns, C., Freshwater, D (eds.). Transforming Nursing through Reflective Practice, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell Ch 2.
• Sandelowski, M. (1996) Truth/storytelling in nursing inquiry. In Kichuchi, J.F., Simmons, H., Romyn, D. (eds.). Truth in Nursing Inquiry, pp. 111—124. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Schutz, A. (1967) The Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
• Seidman, I.E. (1998) Interviewing as Qualitative Research. 2nd edn. New York, Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Sofaer, B., Moore, A., Holloway, I. et al. (2005) The experience of older people in chronic pain. Age and Ageing 34(5): 462—466.[CrossRef]
• Walker, J., Holloway, I., Sofaer, B. (1999) In the system: the lived experience of chronic back pain from the perspectives of those seeking help from pain clinics. PAIN 80: 621—628.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Walker, J., Sofaer, B., Holloway, I. (2006) The experience of chronic pain: accounts of loss in those seeking help from pain clinics. European Journal of Pain 10(3): 199—207.
• Warren, J., Holloway, I., Smith, P. (2000) Fitting in: Maintaining a sense of self during hospitalisation. International Journal of Nursing Studies 7: 460—466.
• Wengraf, T. (2001) Preparing lightly structured interviews: A design for a BNIM type biographic-narrative type interview. In Wengraf, T. (ed.) Qualitative Research Interviewing, pp. 111—151. London, Sage.

Journal of Research in Nursing, Vol. 12, No. 6, 703-711 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1744987107084669


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Holloway, I. Articles by Freshwater, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?