Aims and objectives: To explore how nurses, across various health systems, describe their role in providing palliative care for patients with life-threatening illnesses.Background: Despite the fact that nurses make up the largest group of healthcare

BackgroundThe researcher role is highly debated in qualitative research. This article concerns the researcher-researched relationship.MethodsA group of health science researchers anchored in various qualitative research traditions gathered in reflective group discussions over a period of two years.ResultsEfforts to establish an anti-authoritarian relationship between researcher and researched, negotiation of who actually “rules” the research agenda, and experiences of shifts in “inferior” and “superior” knowledge positions emerged as central and intertwined themes throughout the discussions. The dual role as both insider and outsider, characteristic of qualitative approaches, seemed to lead to power relations and researcher vulnerability which manifested in tangible ways.ConclusionShifting positions and vulnerability surfaced in various ways in the projects. They nonetheless indicated a number of similar experiences which can shed light on the researcher-researched relationship. These issues could benefit from further discussion in the qualitative health research literature.