This thesis offers possibilities for a new way of thinking about the subject of worth in relation to nursing. Its main purpose is to provide nurses with an opportunity to be reflective and reflexive about the many differing concepts of their own worth and that of the people with whom they work, thus facilitating the potential for new thinking and, in turn, new practices. The research arose from disturbances that emerged from three particular areas: 1) my own self worth evaluation; 2) client stories of being treated with a lack of worth by nurses; and 3) from hearing stories from colleagues about perceptions of self worth in relation to nursing identity. Within this study, I used Evocative Autoethnography, a reflexive methodology where the researcher and the researched are one, simultaneously aware of being both subject and researcher. I paid attention to how I experience myself as a nurse, how nursing appears to be viewed and how my idiosyncratic measures and displays of worth affect interactions with both others and myself. A process of rhizomatic conceptualisation ran alongside, through and around the autoethnographic process.providing a map of the territory and a frame of reference for the research. Within this Evocative Autoethnography the data are my thoughts, memories, reflections and reflexive thinking, 'collected' because of their evocative nature. They were analysed through a process of reflection and reflexion whereby the collection of data and the analysis of those data became an iterative cycle, the data becoming the data analysis becoming the data. The data are represented through multimedia concepts such as narrative prose, poetry and photographs. There is no conclusion to this process, only the point at which the data are no longer captured. Through undertaking the research, I discovered that my experience of self worth varied throughout the different cultures and different selves that I inhabit, and that this had an impact on the ways in which I interacted intra- and inter-personally. Through this iterative process of reflection and reflexion, I found I was sometimes able to influence my intra- and interactions in a helpful way, but sometimes my low self worth unhelpfully influenced the outcomes of my self/other encounters. Gaining insight into my constructions of self worth has provided me with opportunities for intra- and inter-actional changes with implications of more helpful practices. The intention of this research is to provide nurses, and in particular, mental health nurses, with an opportunity to be reflective and reflexive around the concepts of their own value and that of the people with whom they work. 'Hearing' others' stories or narratives is essentially an encounter, where the words of the other can resonate with us, providing us with a chance to not only respond to the words of the 'other' but also to our own responses, thus facilitating iterative 'echoing' or, in other words, 'thinking with the story'. In 'thinking with the story' nurses might discover something new about themselves and/or their practice, which in turn might bring about new ways of considering their self worth and that of others, thus leading to practices which place the value of both nurses and the people with whom they work at the centre of their interactions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:589772 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Turner, L. J. |
| Publisher | University of Brighton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/4fb3ac87-5325-48b0-a02b-c2af473f7708 |
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