Working with stories in nursing research: Procedures used in narrative analysis

Abstract

This paper describes the procedures undertaken in a qualitative study that used nurses' stories to examine the influence of Gestalt therapy training on the professional practice of psychiatric nurses. The paper places narrative research methodologies within a nursing context before introducing narrative inquiry, specifically narrative analysis methodology. Procedures used in the study are subsequently described in sufficient detail to serve as a guide for novice researchers interested in undertaking a narrative analysis study. An exemplar of a storied outcome is provided to evidence the product of the narrative analysis research process. The paper concludes with reflections on the importance of articulating the process of narrative analysis as a means of developing interest and competence in narrative research, and using nurses' stories as a means of exploring, understanding, and communicating nursing practice.

Childhood depression in family narratives

“…[18] In this perspective, the family due to the helplessness caused by the different dimensions of enunciation of the child's illness, interpret messages from living with the disease within the communication clinically intentioned. [19] This article is based on the following question: how the family narratives in childhood depression can help in understanding the disease? This issue has gained great impact today with the establishment of interpretive way how the family tries to find clinical knowledge in pain and suffering contextualized in living with the child.…”

Storying youth's experiences of coerced or voluntary residential substance abuse treatment: A narrative research project.

“…Narrative inquiry has been used in a range of areas to identify the meaning associated with lived experiences (Kelly & Howie, 2007;Overcash, 2004). Using narrative approaches has widespread application and has assisted in understanding the story and the meaning of specific human experiences, such as receiving cancer treatment (Overcash, 2004) or nurses learning new treatment interventions for assisting mental health patients (Kelly & Howie, 2007). The use of narrative research approaches is varied and seems only limited by the researcher's capacity to listen, identify, and interpret the stories being told.…”

“…Narrative analysis does not have a standard methodological approach (Kelly & Howie, 2007). The use of a specific set of narrative and ethnographic procedures were employed throughout the research process.…”

“…The use of a specific set of narrative and ethnographic procedures were employed throughout the research process. Following a set of narrative and ethnographic procedures provided an opportunity to achieve a better understanding of the experiences being considered within the research (Kelly & Howie, 2007). The treatment of the narrative data gathered during the research interviews primarily flowed from a collection of narrative research methods.…”

“…The four procedures were transcription, retranscription, development of a final story, and emplotment to identify themes that emerge from the final story (Creswell, 2005, Kelly & Howie, 2007. According to Creswell (2005), it is important to transcribe the participant interviews.…”