Listening to Patients: A Phenomenological Approach to Nursing Research and Practice / Edition 1

by Sandra P. Thomas PhD, RN, FAAN, Howard R. Pollio PhD

Overview

Named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2002 by Choice!

Thomas and Pollio, authors of numerous publications, have written a must-read book for nurses and other health care providers who want to understand and engage in the human experiences of patients. The authors provide wonderful insights for students, researchers, and clinicians into the world of existential phenomenology and share, through the use of this research methodological approach, the personal stories of patients as they lived their experiences. As thought-provoking as the research examples are, the chapters explaining philosophy and methods of existential phenomenology are essential reading for all nursing students...Thomas and Pollio write clearly and simply without the usual academic jargon, a welcome change for college students, clinicians, and researchers alike. This book fills a void in the nursing research literature and will be welcome to nursing researchers, practitioners, and lower-division undergraduates through graduate students.

—CHOICE

This book fills not only a gap but a wide cavern....I can not think of a better way for neophyte nurses to engage the human experiences and perspectives of their patients, nor can I think of a more relevant and comprehensive explanation of the philosophy and methods of existential phenomenology for seasoned researchers, scientists, and theoreticians."—Jacquelyn H. Flaskerud, PhD, RN, FAAN, UCLA School of Nursing

While addressing a wide readership, this book focuses particularly on the nurse clinician and student, demonstrating how a humanistic philosophy and research methodology has the potential to illuminate the deeper meanings of health crises and universal human experiences like pain and spiritual distress.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826114679
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/01/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sandra P. Thomas, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Professor and Director of the PhD Program in Nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Howard R. Pollio, PhD, is Alumni Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
I. Phenomenology and Nursing
• The Patient, the Nurse, and the Philosopher: Seeing Rose Through the Eyes of Merleau-Ponty
• If a Lion Could Talk: Phenomenological Interviewing and Interpretation
II. Nursing and the Human Experience of the Human Body
• The Human Experience of the Human Body
• "It's Like Getting Kicked by a Mule": Living With an Implanted Defibrillator
• "Now It's Me and This Pain": Living With Chronic Pain
III. Nursing and the Human Experience of Other People
• The Human Experience of the World of Others
• "We All Became Diabetics": The Experience of Living With a Diabetic Sibling
• "Walking in the Dark": The Experience of Living With a Daughter Who Has an Eating Disorder
• "She Became an Alien": The Father's Experience of Living with Postpartum Depression
IV. Nursing and the Human Experience of Time
• The Human Experience of Time
• "One Day You're Working and the Next Day You're an Invalid": Recovering After a Stroke
• "The Point of No Return": Formerly Abused Women's Experience of Staying Out of the Abusive Relationship
• "It Was the Dark Night of the Soul": Wresting Meaning From a Time of Spiritual Distress
V. Nursing and the Human Experience of the World
• The Human Experience of the non-Human World
• "Eventually It'll Be Over": The Dialectic Between Confinement and Freedom in the World of the Hospitalized Patient
• "Like a Bunch of Cattle": The Patient's Experience of the Outpatient Health Care Environment
Epilogue
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jacqueline H. Flaskerud

"This book fills not only a gap but a wide cavern ... I can not think of a better way for neophyte nurses to engage the human experiences and perspectives of their patients, nor can I think of a more relevant and comprehensive explanation of the philosophy and methods of existential phenomenology for seasoned researchers, scientists and theoreticians."

Editorial Reviews

4 Stars! from Doody

Reviewer: Diane M Tomasic, EdD, RN (Slippery Rock University )
Description: This book provides an explanation of existential philosophy and phenomological methods. This book is unique in its philosphical basis of Merleau-Ponty and its thorough coverage of the major existential grounds as described by existential phenomenological thought.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide the reader with the opportunity to experience vicariously the lived experiences of patients and make meaning of them within the context of nursing practice. The authors do a fine job in meeting this purpose.
Audience: The target audience for this book is graduate nursing students and faculty who are interested in existential phenomenological thought and research methodology. The authors are directly involved in phenomenologic research so the level of expertise is high.
Features: The book consists of five major sections. The first section introduces the reader to existential philosophy and phenomenolgical approach and its relevance to nursing practice. The second section examines philosophy, theory, and research about the body. The third section explores the human experience of other people. The fourth and fifth sections address topics of time and work respectively. The first chapter of each section provides the basis for the remaining chapters in the section. The remaining chapters in sections two to five are original qualitative research studies.
Assessment: This book would be quite useful as a reference for the graduate student planning to conduct phenomenological research.

Doody's Review Service