Application of discourse analysis to nursing inquiry

Abstract

Discourse analysis (DA) has frequently been misapplied within nursing research, demonstrating a lack of understanding among some nurse researchers of theoretical/ methodological approaches within DA. To date, there are few specific nursing examples illustrating the application of DA, which presents a further obstacle for the new researcher In this paper, Jim Campbell and Sheila Arnold outline a specific nursing example of DA research and describe the process of applying DA to nursing research via the personal experiences of the authors. Two different ways of 'coming to' a DA approach, will be described, one using a structured framework and the other a personal narrative.

An analysis of discourses shaping mental health practitioners

“…According to Stevenson (2004), merging of discourse analysis approaches requires clear articulation of methodological choice. Campbell & Arnold (2004) interpret social constructionist analysis as concerned with the performative nature of language, that is, how language constructs reality and the effects of a particular construction. This kind of analysis exposes three main types of discourse: the biomedical discourse , a range of psychological discourses and a person‐centred discourse of care .…”

In their own words: nurses’ discourses of cleanliness from the Rehoboth Mission

“…Critical discourse analysis was chosen for this study as it allows us to approach the words and silences of the Dutch–American Rehoboth nurses as textualized traces and constructed representations of thoughts, events and memories, and draws attention to the language in reflecting and maintaining existing power relationships (Miller and Alvarado 2005). Rather than understanding texts and discourses as direct reflections of events or the nurses’ direct experiences themselves, it turns attention to the ‘the complex socioeconomic, historical, and political nexus in which human experience is embedded’ (Reimer Kirkham and Anderson 2002, 2), distills discourses within texts, asks how these discourses are contextualized, and critiques the taken‐for‐granted quality of discourses (Parker 1992; Powers 1996; Cheek 2000, 2002; Phillips 2001; Campbell and Arnold 2004; Stevenson 2004; Crowe 2005).…”

“…1 1 See Fairclough (1995 ) for a discussion of how critical discourse analysis looks for intertextuality with social and cultural resources, and links discourses to speaker identities and positions of relative power ( Foucault 1977 ; Reimer Kirkham and Anderson 2002 ; Campbell and Arnold 2004 ); and Said (1978 ) for a discussion of the modalities and effects of colonialism. …”

Diskursen om den svenska skolsköterskans hälsostödjande arbete i kvalitativ forskning: En kvalitativ metasyntes

“…Diskursanalys (inklusive narrativ analys) inom omvårdnadsforskning är emellertid en relativt ovanlig forskningsansats (12,13,14) och har i första hand använts för att förstå och få ett grepp om hur olika aspekter inom omvårdnadsverksamheter artikuleras i debatter, i texter och i andra kommunikativa framställningar och i institutionell praxis. Detta är en brist, då denna typ av analyser för in ett multidimensionellt sätt att se på hur den sociala världen är konstruerad, hur sanningar och fakta läggs fram och hur ideologier och historiska perioder är konstruerade (9,14) här, skolsköterskans hälsostödjande arbete.…”