ABSTRACT
A contemporary challenge for nursing educators is to connect theory with practice for nursing students in a curriculum which is largely theory based. The use of reflective writing has been widely used to increase students' critical thinking, and writing skills, as well as to help students integrate concepts within the context of clinical nursing. In the clinical context, the concept of seeing the other can be challenging for students whose life experiences may not have included many of the crises faced by patients and their families. This paper embeds an undergraduate nursing student's reflective writing response to an exercise, from a family nursing course, utilized to help students relate more confidently to the patient as the other.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate/methods , Nurse-Patient Relations , Students, Nursing/psychology , Thinking , Writing , Alberta , Clinical Competence , Curriculum , Empathy , Family Nursing , Humans , Nursing Theory , Self ConceptABSTRACT
In this paper, the notion of the genuine as it relates to conversation is explored based on the work of H. G. Gadamer in his major work, Truth and Method (1989). The application of the genuine to human interaction and understanding in the context of qualitative research is examined. In addition, possible outcomes of the researcher's philosophical hermeneutic position, as exemplified through the use of the genuine conversation in her work, are discussed. Both the problem as well as the productivity of self-application and prejudice are addressed through the lens of the genuine conversation. We then illustrate the character of interviewing and interpretation of text as research practices that can be informed by Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics while resisting methodology as a necessary feature of research inquiry.
