Research based empathic knowledge for nursing: A translational strategy for disseminating phenomenological research findings to provide evidence for caring practice

Abstract 

We are interested in the kind of knowledge that is particularly relevant to caring practice and the way in which qualitative research findings can serve such knowledge. As phenomenological researchers we have been engaged with the question of how findings from such research can be re-presented and expressed more aesthetically. Such a movement towards a more aesthetic phenomenology may serve the communicative concern to express phenomena relevant to caring practice in ways that appeal to the ‘head, hand and heart’. The paper first offers some thoughts about the complex kind of knowledge relevant to caring that is not only technical or propositional, but actionable and aesthetically moving as well. We call this kind of knowledge ‘embodied relational understanding’. Further, the paper outlines the development of one way of serving a more aesthetic phenomenology whereby research findings can be faithfully and evocatively translated into more empathically impactful expressions. We call this process ‘embodied interpretation’. It is guided by an epistemological framework grounded in the philosophies of Gadamer and Gendlin. We finally illustrate the process with reference to the experience of living after Stroke, and consider the value of this translational process for nursing education and practice.

Keywords: Hermeneutic, Poetic inquiry, Gadamer, Gendlin, Phenomenology, Aesthetic, Embodied interpretation, Empathy, Caring practice, Qualitative research, Stroke