FEMINIST FRIENDSHIP. THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF AN EMINENT NURSE'S NETWORK: DR. GRAYCE M. SILLS.
Contributors: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 215
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Women's Studies.; Psychology, Social.; Biography.
Description: This study, combining multiple methodologies within a qualitative design, examined the lived experience of a group of women who were chosen as part of a personal and professional network of support and connection. Very little research has been conducted from the point of view of an eminent nurse and the network of women surrounding her regarding what they find meaningful about their relational experiences.

The aims of this study were: (a) to create a chronological overview of the central figure narrator's life and nursing career that could serve as a context for key event, people and relationship networks in the central figure narrator's (CFN's) life; (b) to develop the sociometric portrayal of a friendship genealogy as a strategy which located and illuminated individuals in the narrators' network of the CFN's life; and (c) with the addition of a feminist hermeneutic provide a new ground for nurses/women to explore new possibilities created by personal/professional support and relationship networks for nursing and health care reform.

The research design of this study to discover meaning was shaped through combining methodologies related to oral history, Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology, Raymond's genealogy of female friendship, and Moreno's sociometric theory to create a Friendship Genealogy. The design included selection of the central figure narrator, Dr. Grayce M. Sills, creation of her chronological time line, and selection of 27 women who comprised the surrounding network clusters.

The central figure narrator and surrounding network narrators participated in extended, nonstructured interviews. The taped interviews were transcribed and the resulting texts were analyzed hermeneutically within a phenomenological, feminist framework to identify common meanings, relational themes across texts and, finally, constitutive patterns expressing the relationships between themes.

The patterns which emerged from the voices of the women in the network were: (a) "The Splendor of the Ordinary-Making the Invisible, Visible"; (b) "Small Acts-Simple Gifts"; and (c) "Creating a Future of Possibilities-Moving Beyond the Self". These patterns encompassed all of the relational themes and exemplars used within the findings. The patterns and themes of this study described transformations which occurred through the relational influence of Dr. Grayce Sills and the surrounding network of support and connection.

When the relational influence of the network of support and connection was viewed in conjunction with the concept of feminist friendship, many implications and powerful possibilities for understanding and action emerged. The value of incorporating a sense of transcendence or the spiritual into the moral imperative of caring/healing in nursing also became apparent.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-01, Section: B, page: 0244.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1995.

School code: 0831.