Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Participants addressed the general aim of the CIT scope with highly
descriptive and emotional statements. The CIT allowed for a
secondary source of highly colorful singular stories by the
participants. In each study, participants’ explored a specific critical
event with detailed information and specifics. The CIT purposely
asked participants’ to ‘reflect’ on an experience which provided an
opportunity for retrospective reflection. Additionally, the
researchers’ analysis of the CITs validated the interpretations and
findings of both studies.
Conclusion
The CIT is a straightforward instrument to design, user-friendly and
uncomplicated for both researcher and participants. The
development of the CIT to generate indicators of specific
happenings relative to research questions demonstrates the
technique’s suppleness and emphasizes the capability of this
methodology in nursing research. As demonstrated by its’ inclusion
in two separate studies, CITs provided rich data from participants’
singular happenings. If carefully applied, the CIT seems capable of
capitalizing on the participants’ own stories and avoids the loss of
information which occurs when complex narratives are reduced to
simple descriptive categories. 1 As nurses learn more about this
methodology and its application to the study of nurses and nursing
care, they will begin to comprehend how simple and effortless this
technique is to use. The CIT can be developed to conform to any
area of nursing and provide a more comprehensive awareness of
what nurses do and the needs of our clients.
References
1. Norman I, Redfern S, Tomalin, D, Oliver S. (1992). Developing
Flanagan’s critical incident technique to elicit indicators of high and
low quality care from patients and their nurses. Journal of
Advanced Nursing 1992;17:590-600.
2. Keatinge D. Versatility and flexibility: Attributes of the critical
incident technique in nursing research. Nursing and Health
Sciences 2002;4:33-39.
3. Cox K, Bergen A, Norman I. Exploring consumer views of care
provided by the Macmillan nurse using the critical incident
technique. Journal of Advanced Nursing 1993;18:408-415.
4. Brookfield S. The skillful teacher – On technique, trust and
responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco, Ca.: Jossey-Bass
Inc; 1990a: 84.
5. Mezirow J. How critical reflection triggers transformative
learning. In J Mezirow and Associates (Ed.) Fostering critical
reflection in adulthood: A guide to transformative and
emancipatory learning; 2000.
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