When we began applying the term "phenomenological" to our work, we learned that to many persons it sounds strange, unpronounceable, foreign; to some forbidding; to others enticing. We later coined the title "humanistic nursing" as being more suitable for it encompasses our general existential bent. However, this change in title does not imply any abandonment of our phenomenological approach. The description of nursing phenomena is as highly prized now as ever. In humanistic nursing, phenomenological and existential currents interrelate. Having an existential view of nursing as a living dialogue influences which phenomena one becomes aware of, experiences, values, studies, and describes. Reciprocally, as one discovers and struggles to describe and develop meaningful ways of describing nursing phenomena, the lived nursing dialogue itself will be continually perfected.
It is more precise to speak of phenomenological methods (in the plural) rather than phenomenological method (in the singular), for, since Edmund Husserl's original work, the approach has been used by different disciplines. With its spread there has developed a corresponding variation in methodology. This, in a sense, is the beauty of phenomenology: it thrives on variety of perspective; it allows, perhaps requires, individual creativeness; it is always open. In this spirit, ideas are offered here with the hope of stimulating imaginative, critical response, and further development of methodology.
This chapter considers some of the more concrete details of phenomenological methodology as they relate to humanistic nursing. The general approach and procedures discussed below have been used, individually { 79} and collaboratively, by Dr. Josephine Paterson and myself with individual and groups of nurses to explore and describe their nursing experiences. They have helped nurses in various levels and types of nursing service to take a fresh look at their practice and make desirable changes. We have lived through the process with graduate students in nursing, and it has led both the students and us to new conceptualizations and reconceptualizations of nursing phenomena. We have found this to be a fruitful research method when applied to clinical nursing phenomena personally experienced and/or reported in the literature. And we are currently exploring its potentials with interested nurses at Northport Veterans Administration Hospital.