Logic of Phenomenological Methodology

METHODOLOGY-A PROCESS OF BEING

Logic of Phenomenological Methodology

Chapter Six

Logic of Phenomenological Methodology

Dr. Paterson wrote her doctoral dissertation in 1968. She related that in conceptualizing nursing constructs she used a logical methodology she derived from her own practice. She wrote an article about this method titled "From a Philosophy of Nursing to a Method of Nursology" published in 1972 in Nursing Research. Her graduate nursing students studied her methods, further refined since first conceptualized in 1968, in her Humanistic Nursing Practice Theory Course. Nursing and Nursology is best studied using phenomenological methods according to Dr. Paterson. Her method of research is revealed in this chapter.

The outcome of phenomenological method of nursology is descriptions of the professional clinical nursing situation. Nursology is a subjective-objective world that occurs between subjective-objective beings. Nursology's purpose is to delve deep in to this "between" rather than looking at the superficial. Relevance to nursing ranges from its use in formulating nursing constructs to proposing nursing theory. This phenomenological method can be used on a wide range of nursing situations and applications from clinical data to researching a historical study of nursing literature.

The methodological starting point is a belief system. Even though words do not do justice to the interactions of nurses with their patients, and they are colored by the unique presence and history of the discriptee, worse yet is not to offer any descriptions of these interactions or lived experiences. Nurses need to describe these situations to the fullest as that is what gives meaning to man's life, to give meaning to man's existence and to give meaning to becoming ever more.

Human endeavor between man and men in their-worlds, in this instance professional clinical nursing, if explored and described is viewed as contributing to man's human evolvement and to knowledge of the human condition and how man becomes. Integrally all the above statements are the bases and biases of this human phenomenological method of nursology. In a phrase, I suppose what all these starting point statements say is: Nursing situations make available human existence events significantly worthy of description. Only human nurses can describe them. Human's ability to describe reality adequately has its limits. We should describe since pridefully we humans are the only existing beings capable of giving meaning to, looking at, and expressing our consciousness. In the long run this effort could yield a nursing science (P & Z, p. 70).

There are phases of phenomenologic nursology. Paterson and Zderad termed phase I as preparation of the nurse knower for coming to know. Preparing oneself to coming to know means to purposefully relinquish preconceptions and biases and be willing to be a risk taker as the unknown is far more fear producing than that of the known. In order to prepare for this one needs to know self and one's own angular view. Additionally one needs to be willing to be open to other unknowns. Paterson and Zderad related that preparing the mind may be done by several means including "immersing one's self in dramatic and literary works and contemplating, reflecting on, and discussing them as they relate to the knower's already known, in this case, nursing practice" (p. 71).

The second phase is the nurse knowing of the other intuitively. Dr. Paterson cited Henri Bergson and Martin Buber comparing their meaning of intuitive knowing. For Bergson 'living the rhythm of the other he believes results in an absolute, intuitive, inexpressible, unique knowledge of the other ' (P & Z, p. 71) and is comparable to Buber's 'I-Thou' relation which she used as a description for one's knowing place . Paterson related the nurse needs to know the other person and the self and its essence in a relationship. This essence may be intuitive knowing. The approach for the second phase must be personally chosen and is the same as the first phase. This method suggests that in order to study nursing or nursology objectively is an oxymoron, that is, "it bursts asunder the very nature of nursing practice " (p. 72).

Phase three is the nurse knowing the other scientifically. This is the part where the preparing to know has been done, the intuitive knowing and connectedness has occurred, and the nurse translates the experience into words after it has been pondered and reflected upon. This third phase is to reflect on this transaction by itself. The third phase takes place after the transactional phase (phase 2). The scientific way of knowing is the sequential way of expressing what has occurred in words and symbols that produce meaning to those that had no part of the occurrence.

The fourth phase is the nurse complementarily synthesizing the known to other knowns. This is the part where phase 3 (the transaction that has occurred and been pondered upon) is compared and contrasted to other known realities and transactions. Differences exist between these known realities. This research method involves comparing the similarities and differences and sorting these out to reach an expanded view of what has occurred.

Phase five is succession within the nurse from the many to the paradoxical one. Dr. Paterson noted that this phase is essential. This is the point where truths emerge and the knowledge goes forward. This phenomenological method of studying nursing is the end point, where it begins again to allow for the "more being." It has come full circle with the end greater than the sum of the parts.

Home Page Theory: A Phenomenological Approach