Enacted Narrative and Recovery: An Existential Analysis Based on, Hermeneutic- Phenomenological Interpretation

Background: In a European funded, international mental health nursing educational project (called eMenthe), it was found that there is a need for a conceptual framework that encompasses key concepts related to emotional intelligence to support mental health nurses in recovery-oriented care.Objectives: How to ground this conceptual framework in hermeneutic phenomenology. This framework may provide nurses with the concepts for an existential phenomenological analysis of the service user’s lived experiences. The focus of this paper is on discussing how these experiences get translated through narrative.Research design: A discursive argument is developed that links recovery-oriented care with mental health nursing by focusing on narrative, hope and existential topics of identity formation and self-representation.Ethical considerations: There is a strong focus on moral aspects how nurses can help service users to tell a more authentic narrative.Findings: Narrative is seen as the medium and the vehicle by which service users frame new perspectives and develop hope for a better life. The narrative is connected with an existential analysis of important life themes.Conclusion: Two models (a hermeneuticphenomenological and a moral one) are combined to create an outline of how nurses can facilitate and support service users in the telling of an empowered (recovery) narrative.