Nurse #65X89: the emerging story from an emancipatory study of nursing practice.

This article provides a creative account of contemporary nursing practice challenges by using a unitary appreciative inquiry process to create a metastory. A brief review of the Nurse Manifest Project is followed by the story "Nurse #65X89." Nurses are encouraged to explore their own emerging stories and to define avenues for action, emancipation, and change for the profession. In 2002, members of the Nurse Manifest Project studied registered nurses' workplace experiences worldwide. Despite abundant literature showing the need for a return to caring and autonomy in nursing practice (Watson, 1999, 2002), the researchers were aware that most nurses remain entrenched in practice situations in which they feel powerless to practice nursing in the creative and caring ways that are touted as the historical heart of nursing. The researchers explored nurses' perceptions of their work lives through stories that reveal deep meanings about the practice of nursing in today's context and described the processes by which nurses conceive of and create change in these circumstances. The researchers postulated that through this creative process, they could awaken an emancipatory response that could reshape the future of nursing practice. This article will explore the creative outcomes of using unitary appreciative inquiry, a Rogerian narrative analysis process (Cowling, 2004), to reflect on the collected stories of nurses from around the world. RESEARCH PROCESS The Nurse Manifest Project is a grassroots movement based on the Nursing Manifesto (Cowling, Chinn, & Hagedorn, 2000), which called for transforming the nursing profession: We are calling for a movement to awaken those precious and powerful ideals that are rooted in nursing's worldwide historical traditions. We call forth the written and spoken voice of nursing to be claimed and reclaimed. We seek to inspire the fullest expression of the heart of nursing through individual and collective acts. We believe there are profound possibilities in claiming our individual and professional sovereignty. (para. 1) The Nurse Manifest research study was founded on an emancipatory context in which participants sought to know the unknown in order to transform the conditions of their lives. This context was created using a process of reflection and action that was embodied in dialogue and critical reflection. The study was conducted using the website at http://www.nursemanifest .com. Nurses from around the world submitted stories about what it is like to practice nursing today. Submission of a story constituted informed consent. No individual stories were published; rather, the researchers used unitary appreciative inquiry (Cowling, 2001) to analyze the stories. The primary goal of unitary appreciative inquiry is to understand and appreciate a given unitary life pattern, thus generating knowledge relevant to that particular pattern; the generated knowledge is then used for the betterment of human lives (Cowling, 2004). For this project, each of the researchers analyzed 13 of the submitted stories and created metastories intended to reflect the experience and patterns of the participants. The metastories are archived on the Nurse Manifest website at http://nursemanifest. com/research_reports/2002_study/2002_study.htm The following is one of the metastories that emerged from this process (Clark, 2002). This particular metastory has been presented to various nursing groups including students, administrators, faculty, and at several international nursing conferences. NURSE #65X89 Nurse #65X89 jumps onto the fly-fast transporter so as not to be late for her shift position at the Central-Technical Hospital, Western Division (CTHWD). Catching a glimpse of herself in the window, she notes that her dark navy uniform is clean and crisply pressed as per regulation code for technical nurses, section 46723 and her black shoes are clean and presanitized as per regulation code for technical nurses, section 62894. …