Bearing Witness

In this episode, Monica shares her story about what brought her to conduct research on pediatric oncology nurses' caregiving narratives. Danica and Monica further discuss what it means to do narrative research from a critical perspective, the analysis process involved in narrative research, as well as the role of the narrative researcher in ‘bearing witness’ to the stories of their study participants while reflecting on two stories Monica shares from the nurses she interviewed.

Content Warnings 

(38:22 – 40:32): First story shared care situation involving death of child 

(41:52 – 43:10): Second story shared care situation involving death of child

References 

(11:44): Molinaro, Monica L.(2021). “I can’t be the nurse I want to be”: Stories of moral distress in pediatric oncology nurses’ caregiving narratives." Doctoral Dissertation. Download to read at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7994  

(30:59): Emmanuel Levinas’ theory of ‘witnessing the face’ 

Levinas, E. (1979). Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. (A. Lingis, Trans.) Boston, MA: Martinus-Nijhoff Publishers. 

Levinas, E. (1984). Peace and proximity. In A. Peperzak, S. Critchley, & R. Bernasconi (Eds.), Emmanueal Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings (pp. 162-169). Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press. 

Levinas, E. (1998). Entre Nous: On Thinking-of-the-Other. (M. B. Smith, & B. Harshav, Trans.) New York: Columbia University Press. 

(31:13): William Cody’s view of ‘nursing and bearing witness’  

Cody, W. K. (2001a). Bearing witness-not bearing witness as synergistic individual-community becoming. Nursing Science Quarterly, 14(2), 94-100. 

Cody, W. K. (2001b). The ethics of bearing witness in health care: a beginning exploration. Nursing Science Quarterly, 14(4), 288-296. 

Cody, W. K. (2007). Bearing Witness to Suffering: Participating in Contranscendence. International Journal for Human Caring, 11(2), DOI: 10.20467/1091-5710.11.2.17. 

Cody, W. K., Bunkers, S. S., & Mitchell, G. J. (2001). The human becoming theory in practice, research, administration, regulation, and education. In M. Parker (Ed.), Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice (pp. 239-262). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company.