Masters - Phenomenological Approach

I will be using a phenomenological research approach within this dissertation. A phenomenological research approach is an approach that focuses on the study of rare or extraordinary occurrences and does so by concentrating on the study of the lived experience or “thing’s themselves” (Husserl 1962). In this case I will concentrate my studies on the lived experience of nurses who have treated patients suffering from the rare condition, pseudocyesis. It is pertinent then to define this notion of 'lived experience' as set out in the title of the dissertation and establish what is meant by the term. The lived experience of someone is their first-hand account and personal impressions of an event that they have undergone (Powers & Knapp 1995) in this case, nursing and treating a patient that has suffered from pseudocyesis. The study of the ‘lived experience’ is the cornerstone of phenomenological research. Within the field of phenomenology there are two distinct branches; the Husserlian method and the Heideggerian method. I will be using a Heideggerian phenomenological approach in this dissertation. The focus of this dissertation will be one influenced by the work of Heidegger, who argued that we cannot bracket our knowledge and rather need to utilise all our existing knowledge in order to make sense of the subject (Heidegger 1978) this is reflected in the fact that I have initially carried out a scoping review of the literature and set the context through the available literature on the topic and reported my tangential lived experience of nursing a woman who was suffering with pseudocyesis. This focus runs against the approach argued for by Husserl who stated that we should bracket our knowledge and come to the issue with a fresh mind – I believe Husserl’s approach would result in the exclusion of previous interpretations which may hold value, which is why I have opted against using his method. A Heideggerian phenomenological approach involves the examining and interpreting of the subjective experience (Inwood 1997) so in the case of this piece of research, the subjective experiences of nurses who have treated women who have suffered from pseudocyesis. I have endeavoured to do this by examining and exploring the foundations of pseudocyesis and its treatment, and then by conducting interviews with nursing staff in order to ascertain their lived experience and therefore assess the levels of knowledge and understanding surrounding the topic and treatment of pseudocyesis, before drawing comparisons and conflicts with the knowledge and understanding of pseudocyesis as set out in my findings in the literature review. This research is, naturally being from a phenomenological approach, qualitative in its data findings and consequently the subjective experience of emotion leads to the 'meaning-making' process brought about by an exploratory investigation process (Benner 1985). This meaning-making process then itself leads into an interpretist approach. Therefore, having conducted the interviews with the participating nurses, I will be interpreting their experiences and then holding these experiences up against the prior knowledge and understanding of pseudocyesis, as set out in the literature review, in order to draw my own interpretations and conclusions on the nature of the nurses lived experiences.