1.6.3 Enhancing rigour in qualitative nursing research: Exploring subjectivity through Peshkin’s I’s (58)

Caroline Bradbury-Jones, Lecturer in Nursing, School of Nursing Midwifery and Health Studies, University of Wales Bangor, Wrexham, United Kingdom hsse12@bangor.ac.uk

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with the issue of rigour in qualitative research and draws on the work of Peshkin (1988). Peshkin was an anthropologist who became aware of the influence of his subjectivity on his research, and as a result, he articulated the need for researchers to systematically identify their subjectivity throughout their research. The means by which Peshkin achieved this in his own research was to search for different aspects of his subjective ‘I’ by noting in a journal when his feelings were aroused and thus when his subjectivity was evoked. In the presentation I draw on my recent experience of using Peshkin’s I’s to search for my subjectivity as a researcher (author 2007). I share my experience of systematically searching for my subjective I’s by utilising a research journal. I demonstrate how my subjectivity had potential for influence throughout an entire research project and how cognisance of my subjective I’s improved the trustworthiness of the study. I offer this approach for consideration by nurse researchers as a robust means of illuminating researcher bias that extends beyond merely acknowledging one’s subjectivity, to a process that enhances the rigour of a qualitative study. A significant strength of this particular approach is that it can be undertaken in any language and therefore it should appeal to the international conference audience. This is an innovative approach that is new to nursing and I hope that my presentation stimulates discussion and debate among nurse researchers who are interested in exploring ways to enhance the rigour of their research.

Biography:

Ms Caroline Bradbury-Jones Caroline qualified as a nurse in 1983 and then as a midwife in 1988. Caroline practised as a health visitor for ten years in both rural and urban communities in England before moving into nurse education about six years ago. She is now a lecturer in adult nursing at University of Wales, Bangor, with a particular interest in teaching public health, health promotion, management and research. Caroline has a Master’s degree in Education and is in the second year of a PhD for which, she is studying student nurse empowerment. In 2005 Caroline was awarded a Research Training Fellowship by Health Professions Wales which allowed her to undertake a qualitative study of student nurse empowerment utilising the Critical Incident Technique. She has an interest in cross-cultural research and has co-authored a paper reporting on a comparative study of the experiences of empowerment between student nurses in the UK and Japan. Caroline was a Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholar for 2007 which funded her to travel to Canada, USA and Finland in order to study the empowerment of student nurses cross-culturally. She is also a student of the European Academy of Nursing Science.