[Reflections on phenomenological research in nursing]

Abstract

This essay is concerned with the question which philosophical traditions underpin the phenomenological perspective in nursing research. The word phenomenology is often used synonymously on the level of the theory of science as well as on the level of research methods. Besides the similarity in the designation of phenomenology as a philosophical tradition and as a research method, there are to be found a number of terms in the nursing literature, such as hermeneutic, interpretive or interpretative phenomenology. Therefore it is hard to differentiate between the various accounts and to use them for a concrete inquiry in nursing. The differences and the resulting consequences for phenomenological research methods shall be described whereby the ideas of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger are taken into account.