Making the research accessible

Consideration needs to be given to how the researcher can do justice to the experience under study in order to communicate the findings to the appropriate audience. This communication should be at both intellectual and personal level, especially with phenomenology, where the described experience by necessity must connect with and speak to those who are part of the nurse-mentor lifeworld. As phenomenology historically has problems being accepted into mainstream psychology, for example, (Halling, S. 2002; Giorgi, A. 2008) it is important that the value of the phenomenological approach is made clear. However, in immersing oneself in the language and tradition of phenomenology, the research can easily become impenetrable to the ordinary person. By telling the story of the research, the process of discovery, readers can be taken along and helped through the rather dense concepts that have to be addressed when using phenomenology. In order to bring the reader into a close relationship with the subject matter, it is necessary also to include well-chosen examples and quotes. This has been part of the driving force of the data collection: obtaining a range of descriptive accounts that can illuminate the experience under study. One use of descriptions and examples is in the creation of anecdotes. Anecdotes (van Manen, M. 1997) appear to be an essential methodological device. Van Manen explains that the anecdote is a social product, a special kind of story that makes comprehensible abstract ideas that may be difficult to articulate. In my own research, I might, for example, look for an anecdote that can effectively illustrate the concept of frustration that participants frequently express either when faced with students don’t seem to grasp what nursing is about, or who don’t seem to take ownership of their learning, or other sources of frustration such as having to accept the constraints of limited time to teach and support. Or, an anecdote might illustrate the difference between the rewards of helping someone to learn and the rewards of getting the work done by the end of the shift. As a biographical incident, an anecdote can reveal something particular about a person’s character. For example, I might find I can use an anecdote derived from the transcripts to illustrate the participant’s profile on the ‘Trust’ trait.