An adaptable instrument and method for exploring care and compassion
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence & Practice Previous     Next

An adaptable instrument and method for exploring care and compassion

Roger Newham Senior lecturer, Buckinghamshire New University, London, UK
Louise Terry Reader, London South Bank University, London, UK

Background Narratives, particularly when visual and auditory elements are added to words, reveal more about cultures and behaviours, including those present in professional and service settings. Discourse analysis (DA) enables researchers to explicate meanings and understandings linking culture and behaviour.

Aim To explain the development of a DA instrument and method for a research study of caring and compassion as expressed in different media.

Discussion The DA instrument assisted in systematic and multi-modal data analysis by several researchers from different countries and backgrounds. DA appears well-suited to revealing the complexities of caring and compassion by healthcare and social care educators, capturing ‘objectivist’ and ‘subjectivist’ accounts. While allowing differences, it also helped to achieve some commonality.

Conclusion Together, the instrument and method could be used in educating nurses about care and compassion.

Implications for practice The DA instrument and method can be adapted by other nurse researchers to examine complex human issues.

Nurse Researcher. 24, 3, 8-12. doi: 10.7748/nr.2017.e1451

Correspondence

roger.newham@bucks.ac.uk

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 20 November 2015

Accepted: 25 April 2016

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