Using narrative in nursing research

Abstract

Narrative is a term used in everyday life. While it refers to a spoken or written account or story, it is also an increasingly popular research method. This article explores the role of narrative in nursing research and practice, and evaluates the use of narrative as a research method. Narrative is the study of how humans experience the world and how they interpret this experience. It can be an excellent research method to expand understanding of healthcare provision and individual patient experience. AuthorMaria Joyce Senior lecturer, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, England. Correspondence to: mjoyce@lincoln.ac.uk Keywords Narration, narrative, narrative ethics, narrative research, nursing research, patient experience, patients' stories ReviewAll articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software. OnlineFor related articles visit the archive and search using the keywords above. Guidelines on writing for publication are available at: journals.rcni.com/r/author-guidelines such as a sequence of events in their lives, or a representation of themselves. Narrative may be both a research approach and the product of the research process. This article considers the role of narrative in nursing practice and evaluates it as a potential research method. Narrative in nursingIn a healthcare culture focused on the patient perspective, patients' stories are increasingly relevant, and there is growing recognition of the relevance of narrative (Hawkins and Lindsay 2006). It is necessary to understand health experiences and the patient's story to meet the demand for high quality personalised services, providing patients with information and choice (Department of Health (DH) 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012). Moreover, individuals have their own views and opinions on health attainment and should be encouraged to increase their control of detrimental behaviours (DH 2010). Narrative can assist nurse researchers to gain an understanding of the patient perspective and how this may shape their experiences and behaviours (Bailey and Tilley 2002, Hall and Powell 2011).Narrative occurs in the nurse-patient relationship in both clinical and therapeutic settings. Patients remember, recall and retell their stories when they talk about their experiences. Such stories serve as a window into the patient's world, through which nurses can gain valuable insight into what the story means to the patient (Hall and Powell 2011). Opportunities to gain insight from narrative might occur during the initial patient assessment and the routine provision of physical or psychological care (Gaydos 2005). Through storytelling, thoughts are structured and set in a framework of timelines and sequences of actions (Lieblich et al 1998). During this process, patients create meaning from their experience.Narrative is also present in record-keeping in clinical practice. Writing up the patient assessment and care plan forms a structure that allows others to understand what has taken ...

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