Balancing Risk in Pursuit of the Familiar: A Research Phenomenon

Abstract

From theWest Virginia University School of Nursing, WV; Full time faculty at Penn State New Kensington, New Kensington, PA. Corresponding Author: Deborah M. Strickland, MSN, RN, Doctoral Student, West Virginia University School of Nursing, WV. E–mail address: dstrickland4@gmail.com © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 0883-9417/1801-0005$34.00/0 doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2012.02.001 IN THE SCIENCE of nursing, the discipline is developed by identifying research phenomena based in practice. Immersion in practice enables discovery. In the discovery process of building structures for research defined by Liehr and Smith (2008), the phenomenon of balancing risk in pursuit of the familiar was developed. The phenomenon is observed in nurses' daily work as patients' express their goal to return to their own home and to familiar and everyday patterns. This pursuit is expressed in a variety of situations, such as nursing care of elderly persons, children in foster care, and those who attempt to return to their home after inpatient or transitional stays. Regardless of population, mental health is implicit in the phenomenon of balancing risk in pursuit of the familiar. The purpose of this column was to present a beginning scholar's journey to uncover a phenomenon for research. The phenomenon was developed using the systematic 10-phase process described by Liehr and Smith (2008). The 10 phases are as follows: (1) write a meaningful practice story; (2) name the central phenomenon in the practice story; (3) identify a theoretical lens for viewing the phenomenon; (4) link the phenomenon to existing literature; (5) gather a story from someone who has lived the phenomenon; (6) reconstruct the shared story and create a mini saga that captures the essence of the story; (7) identify the core qualities of the phenomenon; (8) use the core qualities to create a definition; (9) create a model of the phenomenon; and (10) write a mini synthesis that integrates the phenomenon with a population to suggest a research direction. Phase 1 began with a practice story of an elderly woman with multiple complex needs who fought with all her might to return home after a hospital stay in spite of objections from family, nursing, and medical staff who called out the risk of going home.