Applying phenomenography in nursing research.
OBJECTIVE
This paper examines phenomenography, a research approach designed to answer certain questions about how people make sense of their experience. The research approach, developed within educational research, is a content-related approach investigating the different qualitative ways in which people make sense of the world around them. The outcomes of phenomenographic research are different content-related categories describing the differences in other people's ways of experiencing and conceiving their world.


METHODS
The research approach is presented by describing the underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions, describing the research method in detail and providing some examples of phenomengraphic studies in health care and nursing research. The possibilities for applying the methodology to nursing research are discussed, illustrated by research examples. Finally, the future role of the approach within nursing research is discussed.


CONCLUSIONS
The emphasis on differences in the phenomenographical research approach makes it distinct from other research approaches, and accordingly, it seems to be reasonable to incorporate knowledge of this kind in the professional education of health care personnel.
Sjöström
Björn
B
Institute of Health Care Pedagogics, Göteborg University and Department of Health Sciences, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden. bjorn.sjostrom@ihv.his.se
Dahlgren
Lars Owe
LO
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005086:Existentialism; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D013850:Thinking