Heuristic Research in Nursing Science.

The purpose of this article is to reintroduce and describe the processes and phases of heuristic inquiry and to illustrate how the method can advance nursing science. Heuristic inquiry is a rigorous, systematic, phenomenologically orientated research method developed by Clark Moustakas for investigating, discovering, and understanding the nature and meaning of living experiences. Heuristic inquiry invites the inclusion of the researcher's autobiographical living of experience being investigated honoring the personal experiences of the phenomenon from self and each participant in the research study. The author proposes that heuristic inquiry be used in nursing science by including a theoretical interpretive process connecting the thematic essences of the nursing conceptual framework guiding the study. Nursing theory-guided heuristic research advances the study of caring for persons experiencing human-environmental-health transitions to enhance human betterment and wellbecoming.

The Role of Metaphor in Hermeneutic Research.

The identification and interpretation of metaphor is useful to hermeneutic research. Metaphor is a way of conceiving one concept in terms of another and serves as a function of understanding. The author explores the rise of hermeneutics research and its relevance to nurse artsciencing. Metaphors are a creative strategy hermeneutic researchers can use to analyze and interpret data, and serve as a powerful strategy to represent complex realities, illuminate unnoticed aspects of a phenomenon, and provide depth of meaning to the understanding of human experiences.

The Uncertainty in Family Caregivers of Hospitalized Persons With a Stroke in Saudi Arabia: Unitary Caring Perspective.

Uncertainty is a universal experience of family caregivers caring for persons with a stroke and affects caregivers' readiness to care for their family members with a stroke. Guided by the unitary caring theory and unitary-caring hermeneutic-phenomenological research method, this study was conducted among 15 family caregivers of persons in the hospital who have survived strokes through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Five essences emerged from the analysis: living in a dark reality; yearning for professional support; enduring a life full of tribulations; attempting resolution; and creating new patterns of living. Each of the 5 essences was interpreted from Smith's unitary caring theory perspective.

Originating Research Ideas.

Research aimed at generating new knowledge is the heart of the scholarship of discovery. The author of this paper explores how original research ideas can be generated for formal investigations and artsciencing. Curiosity and creativity are presented as "seeds" for originating ideas, and seven patterns (adjacent possible, liquid networks, the slow hunch, serendipity, error, exaptation, and platforms) are described as synergistic potentiators for geminating original research ideas.