title: A case for the use of autoethnography in nursing research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper discusses the basis for and potential usefulness of autoethnography as a research method in nursing.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  While qualitative research in nursing has traditionally involved the researcher taking an objective stance, autoethnography, with roots in the social sciences, is an emerging method that examines the researcher's own experience in a cultural context.
  
  
  METHODS
  Discussion paper.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data sources from 1979-2013 in the CINAHL, Medline and PsycInfo databases were drawn on including articles from nursing and social science journals on autoethnography and related narrative-based approaches.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Autoethnography is based on the assumption that reality is multifaceted and the role of culture and context is crucial in understanding human experience. The reader is engaged through the evocation of emotion and the stimulation of reflection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While autoethnography has thus far been little used in the discipline of nursing, it is a methodology that offers novel insights and an opportunity to examine the impact of nurses' personal and professional cultural identity on their practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Through the use of a subjective lens, autoethnography gives nurses the opportunity to tell stories that would otherwise not be heard. It involves a courageous laying bare of the self to gain new cultural understandings and it offers the potential for nurses to learn from the experiences and reflections of other nurses.
authors.affiliation: Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada ; Acute Home-Based Treatment, Vancouver Coastal Health, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Ashley L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Peterson
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D003469:Culture; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods*
keywords: autoethnography; narrative methods; nursing research; qualitative research; subjectivity