Negotiating post-research encounters: reflections on learning of participant deaths following a qualitative study

Abstract

While some literature addresses the impact of sensitive topic research on qualitative researchers, there is insufficient attention to consequences of researcher–participant engagement occurring after data generation, particularly when studying individuals with life-threatening illnesses. Specifically, researchers can experience post-research encounters with participants directly or indirectly via other people, news media, obituaries or memories. These encounters have the potential to emotionally impact researchers, especially when they involve learning of participant deaths. In this article, I reflect on post-research encounters with participants following qualitative data generation for a study about women with ovarian cancer. Using examples from reflective journaling, I consider the ongoing nature of researcher–participant relationships and my reactions to learning of participant deaths. My purpose in sharing these reflections is to explicate how post-research encounters generated emotional responses that were unanticipated because they occurred after data generation. Subsequently, I identify challenges and benefits that can arise for qualitative researchers studying illness and dying, and propose that preparation for data generation does not adequately prepare researchers for ongoing implications of participant engagement. Although consequences of research relationships and post-research encounters cannot necessarily be pre-emptively managed, access to adequate support and training is imperative to coping with emotional responses for qualitative researchers.