Practitioner - Based Research: Power, Discourse and Transformation

Abstract

This is a persuasive book and has converted me to question the limitation of applying evidence-based practice in all aspects of health care. The book highlights that more conventional approaches to research emphasize the importance of generating knowledge in a specialist area but in doing so usually excludes personal experience from the process. The editors feel that ontological and epistemological perspective in research bridges this gap by promoting practitioner's reflectivity in their professional, clinical and personal experience.The contributors of this book use ontological and epistemological perspectives to cover a range of themes. The themes covered include the limitations of academic life, conventional medical models, ethics, the importance of imaginative writing, the use of story, metaphor and myth, the importance of personal transformation in the professional development of healthcare workers and the relevance of belief and spirituality to healthcare research.The majority of the contributors come from a psychoanalytical perspective and are involved in a form of therapy as part of their clinical work. Each chapter presents the contributors piece of research which shows how they grapple with the research process while providing in-depth reflections in aspects of their personal or clinical experience and how this has impacted on their professional practice. Reading through the research I could identify with authors and their struggles with academia and relating it to clinical practice which I feel shows how this type of research is relevant to other clinicians in practice.The book highlights how more formal research approaches into therapeutic clinical interventions in mental health such as psychoanalytical therapy does not always work. Traditional research approaches as supported by evidence-based practice encourages the researcher to removes their thoughts and feeling during the research process to reduce bias in the data. From a psychoanalytical perspective these thoughts and feeling are invaluable data and evidence which enhance insights into human relationships. Therefore, the book argues that evidencebased practice has major short comings in relation to healthcare practice which are mainly influenced by the psychological and social models of care where reflection on the human interaction is vital.This book highlights the work of practitioner researchers who have a significant contribution to make to healthcare research, which needs to be disseminated further in order to create balanced research communities within the healthcare professions. One of the negative points I felt about this book was that it was written in American English when the book was mainly written by professionals from the UK and published in England. I felt that this took from the true origins of the book which challenges the limited perspective within research in mental health and using research methodology that reflects the individual's clinical practice. I feel this book will assist academic researchers to broaden ontological a...