Caring for insiderness: Phenomenologically informed insights that can guide practice

Todres, Les; Galvin, Kathleen T.; Dahlberg, Karin

Abstract

Understanding the "insider" perspective has been a pivotal strength of qualitative research. Further than this, within the more applied fields in which the human activity of "caring" takes place, such understanding of "what it is like" for people from within their lifeworlds has also been acknowledged as the foundational starting point in order for "care" to be caring. But we believe that more attention needs to be paid to this foundational generic phenomenon: what it means to understand the "insiderness" of another, but more importantly, how to act on this in caring ways. We call this human phenomenon "caring for insiderness." Drawing on existing phenomenological studies of marginal caring situations at the limits of caring capability, and through a process of phenomenologically oriented reflection, we interrogated some existential themes implicit in these publications that could lead to deeper insights for both theoretical and applied purposes. The paper provides direction for practices of caring by highlighting some dangers as well as some remedies along this path. ©2014 L. Todres et al.

Citation

Todres, L., Galvin, K. T., & Dahlberg, K. (2014). Caring for insiderness: Phenomenologically informed insights that can guide practice. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 9(1), 21421. https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.21421

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 4, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jan 21, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 21, 2014
• Deposit Date: Dec 17, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 23, 2017
• Journal: International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being
• Print ISSN: 1748-2623
• Electronic ISSN: 1748-2631
• Publisher: Co-Action Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 21421
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.21421
• Keywords: Caring, Person centred, Phenomenology, Lifeworld, Humanization, Individualized care, Reflective analysis
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/382934
• Publisher URL: http://www.ijqhw.net/index.php/qhw/article/view/21421#CIT0013_21421
• Additional Information: Copy of article: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2014, 9: 21421 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.21421