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Nursing lives in the blogosphere: A thematic analysis of anonymous online nursing narratives
Author(s) -
Castro Aimee,
Andrews Gavin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/jan.13411
Subject(s) - thematic analysis , nursing , feeling , nurse education , narrative , qualitative research , psychology , medicine , sociology , social psychology , social science , linguistics , philosophy
Aim The aim of this study was to explore the work‐life narratives of nurses through a thematic analysis of the nursing accounts they post in their publicly accessible, anonymous blogs. Background Many nurses participate on social media. Blogs have been advocated as a self‐reflective tool in nursing practice, yet as far as the authors are aware, no previous studies have explored nurses’ individual blogs for their potential to reveal nurses’ perceptions of nursing work. Design The research design was qualitative description. Methods Between May–August 2015, Internet search engines were used to discover lists of nursing blogs recommended by organizations representing nurses’ interests. Recommended blogs were purposively sampled. Four anonymous blogs written by nurses from different nursing specialties met the sampling criteria. All 520 of their entries from 2014 were read and copied into NV ivo 10, where an inductive coding process was followed. Findings Three major themes arose in these nurses’ online discussions of their work lives: they truly care about and value their nursing work, but they are feeling stressed and burnt out and they are using their anonymous blogs to share factors that frustrate them in their nursing work. Three main areas of frustration were revealed: teamwork problems, challenging patients and families, and management issues. Conclusion Anonymous nursing blogs offer valuable, longitudinal insights into nurses’ perceptions of their work lives. Nursing blogs should be further explored for ongoing insights into nurses’ experiences of nursing work, as well as nurses’ recommendations for addressing issues causing them to feel frustrated in their work environments.