Narrative journalism as complementary inquiry

Narrative journalism is a method to craft stories worth reading about real people. In this article, we explore the ability of that communicative power to produce insights complementary to those obtainable through traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods. With examples from a study of journalistic narrative as patient involvement in professional rehabilitation, interview data transcribed as stories are analyzed for qualities of heterogeneity, sensibility, transparency, and reflexivity. Building on sociological theories of thinking with stories, writing as inquiry, and public journalism as ethnography, we suggest that narrative journalism as a common practice might unfold dimensions of subjective otherness of the self. Aspiring to unite writing in both transparently confrontational and empathetically dialogic ways, the narrative journalistic method holds a potential to expose dynamics of power within the interview

Positioner i sygeplejen

Artiklen sætter fokus på tre udvalgte positioner i sygeplejen: en evidensbaseret, en behovsbaseret og en omsorgsbaseret. Positionerne er fremtrædende i forskellige former for italesættelse af syge-pleje i uddannelses‑, efter‑ og videreuddannelsessammenhænge og i artikler, lærebøger, pjecer, målsætninger for sygepleje m.m. Der tages afsæt i spørgsmålet: ’Hvad kan vi vide om sygepleje?’, der afgrænses ved hjælp af Gregory Batesons begreb ’trustedideas’ (nedsænkede ideer). Artiklen indledes med en kort kontekstualisering af sygeplejen samt en diskussion af nedsænkede ideer i sygeplejen. De tre positioner undersøges hver for sig med fokus på nedsænkede ideer om forholdet mellem viden og sandhed, subjekt og objekt. Positionerne repræsenterer dels en ideografisk pol og en nomotetisk pol. Inden for den nomotetiske pol befinder sig den evidensbaserede og den behovs-baserede position (at opstille generelle lovmæssigheder). I den omsorgsbaserede position er en ideografisk pol tydelig (at beskrive og forstå hver enkelt patient i sin særegenhed). Konklusionen lægger op til, at ethvert møde mellem sygeplejerske og patient er unikt (ideografisk) og typisk (nomotetisk) på samme tid, og at der er brug for at udvikle et dobbeltblik på sygepleje

Byron J. Good: Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective

Byron J. Good: Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective Anmeldes af Helle Ploug Hanse

„Min hukommelse er som en tesi“: Om kvinder, kræft og kemoterapi

Helle Ploug Hansen: “My Memory is Like a Sieve”: On Women, Cancer and Chemo- therapy Empirical data from my research project about women, cancer and rehabilitation are used in this article to explore loss of memory in relation to a severe disease. First I describe how women experience loss of memory in the case of cancer, and how they interpret this as a side-effect of the chemotherapy treatment. Hereby they reproduce a part of the dominant health discourse, where loss of memory is understood as cognitive impairment. Second, I explore how the women through their stories of illness experiences show that they remember quite well and with a lot of details – they just remember something other than they thought they should remember. Third, I argue that people experiencing a severe disease concentrate a great deal of their attention on the body, forgetting acts and experiences outside their own living body. As Scarry has said: “What is remembered in the body is remembered well.”

„Min hukommelse er som en tesi“: Om kvinder, kræft og kemoterapi

Helle Ploug Hansen: “My Memory is Like a Sieve”: On Women, Cancer and Chemo- therapy Empirical data from my research project about women, cancer and rehabilitation are used in this article to explore loss of memory in relation to a severe disease. First I describe how women experience loss of memory in the case of cancer, and how they interpret this as a side-effect of the chemotherapy treatment. Hereby they reproduce a part of the dominant health discourse, where loss of memory is understood as cognitive impairment. Second, I explore how the women through their stories of illness experiences show that they remember quite well and with a lot of details – they just remember something other than they thought they should remember. Third, I argue that people experiencing a severe disease concentrate a great deal of their attention on the body, forgetting acts and experiences outside their own living body. As Scarry has said: “What is remembered in the body is remembered well.”

Hvad sygeplejersker ser, når de ser en patient. Om synet i en verden af kroppe

Det var en chokerende oplevelse at starte feltarbejde pa en kraftafdeling pa et universitetshospital i Kobenhavns omegn. Godt nok havde jeg mange ar tidligere arbejdet som sygeplejerske pa forskellige hospitalsafdelinger og der passet og plejet patienter med kraft, men aldrig pa en hojt specialiseret medicinsk kraftafdeling som denne. Her er unge og voksne mand og kvinder indlagt til diverse udredningsundersogelser, til aktiv behandling med kemoterapi, straleterapi eller implantationsterapi. Afdelingen modtager ogsa patienter, der far komplikationer til behandlingen, fx mangel pa hvide blodlegemer, mundbetandelse, diarre, opkastninger, smerter, blodning, temperaturforhojelse, eller behandlingskravende komplikationer til sygdommen, fx hjememetastaser og tarmslyng. Endelig kan patienter indlagges pa grund af behov for sygepleje, nar den aktive behandling er ophort. &nbsp

„Min hukommelse er som en tesi“: Om kvinder, kræft og kemoterapi

Helle Ploug Hansen: “My Memory is Like a Sieve”: On Women, Cancer and Chemo- therapy Empirical data from my research project about women, cancer and rehabilitation are used in this article to explore loss of memory in relation to a severe disease. First I describe how women experience loss of memory in the case of cancer, and how they interpret this as a side-effect of the chemotherapy treatment. Hereby they reproduce a part of the dominant health discourse, where loss of memory is understood as cognitive impairment. Second, I explore how the women through their stories of illness experiences show that they remember quite well and with a lot of details – they just remember something other than they thought they should remember. Third, I argue that people experiencing a severe disease concentrate a great deal of their attention on the body, forgetting acts and experiences outside their own living body. As Scarry has said: “What is remembered in the body is remembered well.”

Kræft og Håbsarbejde

Flere undersøgelser viser, at en kræftdiagnose kan afstedkomme en eksistentiel chokbølge med angst, fremtidsbekymringer og revidering af livsplaner som følge. Håb er en vigtig komponent af livet med en kræftsygdom, men der mangler viden om, hvordan håb udspiller sig konkret i hverdagslivet med kræft, og hvordan håb påvirker og påvirkes af sociale relationer. En indsigt heri vil kunne bane vej for, at rehabilitering tilrettelægges, således at håb, livsplaner og livsorienteringer bliver en integreret del heraf. Artiklen bygger på etnografisk materiale fra forfatternes antropologiske studier blandt mennesker med kræft i Danmark. Cheryl Mattinglys begreb håbsarbejde og Barbara Adams begreber om tid benyttes til at sætte fokus på nogle overordnede tidsorienteringer eller temporaliteter. Vi viser, at et liv med kræft analytisk kan anskues som et ophold i en lobby, hvor fremtiden er usikker og forbundet med konkrete ny-orienteringer, handlinger og praksis.

Diverse diazotrophs are present on sinking particles in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

Sinking particles transport carbon and nutrients from the surface ocean into the deep sea and are considered hot spots for bacterial diversity and activity. In the oligotrophic oceans, nitrogen (N2)-fixing organisms (diazotrophs) are an important source of new N but the extent to which these organisms are present and exported on sinking particles is not well known. Sinking particles were collected every 6 h over a 2-day period using net traps deployed at 150 m in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The bacterial community and composition of diazotrophs associated with individual and bulk sinking particles was assessed using 16S rRNA and nifH gene amplicon sequencing. The bacterial community composition in bulk particles remained remarkably consistent throughout time and space while large variations of individually picked particles were observed. This difference suggests that unique biogeochemical conditions within individual particles may offer distinct ecological niches for specialized bacterial taxa. Compared to surrounding seawater, particle samples were enriched in different size classes of globally significant N2-fixing cyanobacteria including Trichodesmium, symbionts of diatoms, and the unicellular cyanobacteria Crocosphaera and UCYN-A. The particles also contained nifH gene sequences of diverse non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs suggesting that particles could be loci for N2 fixation by heterotrophic bacteria. The results demonstrate that diverse diazotrophs were present on particles and that new N may thereby be directly exported from surface waters on sinking particles

“I’m sure that there is something healing in the writing process”: Creative Writing Workshops for People with a Cancer Disease

The University of Southern Denmark has introduced a mandatory course in Narrative Medicine into the curriculum of undergraduate medical students. It is part of a trajectory called ‘Human First’, which aims to improve the students’ empathic abilities by teaching them narrative competencies to draw on in their future clinical encounters as medical doctors. Although, theoretical accounts seem to make a strong case for the utility and value of educational interventions, such as courses in narrative medicine or medical humanities, there has been a lack of empirical studies providing evidence to support such accounts – especially those focusing on the long-term effects and impact on patient care. Our systematic literature search and review of empirical studies regarding the effects of teaching close reading of fictional texts and creative writing to medical and health care students, tentatively confirmed previous indications of positive effects. Larger, multi-site and more rigorous studies that assess the long-term impacts of these educational interventions and adjust for local variations are, however, still in short supply. Finally, we present critical reflections on whether empathy and similar phenomena are at all measurable and discuss the possibility of meaningfully evaluating the utility of curricular interventions such as narrative medicine courses