7.7.3 Listening to the stories of young people who have CF (What are the life experiences for individuals when the young adult has Cystic Fibrosis (CF): An in-depth life story analysis of 8 individuals (248)
Christina Thurston, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health & Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, United Kingdom
Abstract:
“What I’d like at my funeral….My mum knows, she knows I want a horse and cart. And I want white lilies and stuff.… I don’t want hymns. “ This study describes with young peoples narratives their feelings, and memories around their lives, alongside their experiences of school ,careers and the heath service . The methodology draws from the ideas of sociological phenomenological , exploring the boundary between the exploration of a person’s public and social life and their private and emotional life. The young people with CF reflected upon their life using a life story approach, this enabled a picture to emerge which captured the unique life of young people who have CF and their adaptation to living, along side the shared experiences of living with a long term illness. The process of exploring someone’s life story or narrative as a research method gives the narrator the opportunity to tell their story or “narrative truth” rather than the “historical truth”, (Crossley, 2000). This distinction is the difference between a factual account, which gives a clear but a one dimension version of events, and a personal story, which while not always completely accurate, allows the story teller to relive the experience from their perception, and contains feeling and opinions about the events (Mcadams, 2001). The texture of the life story is explored by narration of the young person’s words using story maps holding the themes, which are developed, into factual stories. These offer a commentary of the issues raised by the narrators. Kvale (1996) views this shared meanings, as encouraging understanding of the individual’s world. The stories then highlight common experiences and unique challenges for each of the young person with CF, this enables clarification of the needs required by these young people as they transfer to adult services.
Recommended reading list:
- Crossley, M. L. 2000 Introducing Narrative Psychology, Open University Press, Buckingham
- Mcadams, D. 2001, 3rd Edition, The Person, An Integrated Introduction To Personality And Psychology, Harcourt College Publishers, New York
- Kvale, S. 1996, Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing, California Sage Publications Inc.
Source of Funding: N/A
Amount in Funding: N/A
Biography:
Chris with the primary focus being children’s and young people’s nursing continues to act as module leader, co-ordinating module activities and liaising with module teams, including being involved in the validation process for programme and module development and review. She also links with a children unit which includes a children's ward ,NNU and children's A AND E. Chris is involved in supervision of undergraduate dissertations, and postgraduate students as part of her role as an academic tutor. She also supports her department in research as research lead . She started her PhD in 2001 and now feels it is the appropriate time to start sharing the findings with others who are interested in the research approach of life story interviews with young people with CF.