title: The whole story: towards an ethical research methodology.
abstract: In this paper Alex Carson and Gavin Fairbairn argue that closer links between nursing education, research and practice may be developed through the use of a narrative methodology. The debate is cited in the wider practical and political context of a more democratic model of healthcare delivery. The authors provide a rationale for the use of stories in both nursing research and nursing practice by suggesting that each rests upon an ethic of helping whole people, rather than simply amounting to a technical undertaking. They suggest that the relationship between the ethical and the technical should be a more explicit feature in discussions of methodological issues in nursing research. They locate ideas about narrative research outside both qualitative and quantitative paradigms. Finally, they offer a philosophical and methodological argument for the use of narratives as an approach to research in which respect for people is central.
authors.affiliation: North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Plas Coch, Wrexham, Wales.
authors.forename: Alex M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Carson
authors.forename: Gavin J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Fairbairn
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004645:Empathy; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006379:Helping Behavior; D018939:Holistic Nursing; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D016294:Models, Nursing; D033262:Narration; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D009737:Nursing Records; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D012660:Semantics