The Patient’s Voice in the Development of Complex Interventions

Listening to ill persons and letting their perspectives guide the design and assessment of clinical interventions permits a considerably important illumination of illness diversity, as well as given insight in these people’s needs, wishes and values. This paper represents reflections on the creation of knowledge concerning the importance of aesthetics in hospital settings. Applying a phenomenological-hermeneutic methodological approach to qualitative data of patients’ experiences is concerned with regards to investigating what being-in-the-world means in specific environmental settings during hospitalization. There are few published studies that describe the meaning of developing and evaluating complex interventions based on qualitative data. This paper illuminates how a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach can be of guidance when developing interventions in nursing practice. In this context, there is a discussion of the value of conducting a Ricoeur-inspired analysis and interpretation.

Keywords: Qualitative studies; Patients’ experiences; Complex interventions; Paul Ricoeur; Phenomenology-hermeneutics