Congress Paper Abstract

A reflective account of the research process: what it was really like

Rosemary Grimshaw, Research Nurse, GIC, St James, Leeds 

This paper discusses my experience of acting as clinician/researcher/participant in a post-graduate pilot study. The study sought to examine the potential contributions of a specialist nurse to clients who attended the Leeds Gender Identity Unit. Sadly a lack of support meant that further research was unethical as clients emotional needs would have been expendable.

The preliminary report of this research was published in the Gendys 1996 conference report. (Clegg et al 1996). I knew the clients, not as respondents, but as individuals. The role I played within the clinic meant that I was able to develop as a reflective practitioner by learning about client needs from the individuals with whom I worked. We had a history together before the study had started.

Constraints forced us to adopt a reductionist approach to analysis, and only partial data was used to prepare the co-authored paper which did not have the capacity to reflect the relational depth which had developed between the clients and myself. This reflective account will tell the story of the research by treating all narratives as data to demonstrate a continuity between past, present and future.

Previous abstract

Next abstract