ABSTRACT
The choice of approach to a study, its methodology, needs to reflect the nature of the research. This chapter focuses on nurses' experience of spirituality as a resource in coping with loss was not one amenable to a positivist, or quantitative, approach. It explains the use of Heideggerian hermeneutics – and interpretative phenomenology influenced by Heideggerian philosophy – as my choice of qualitative methodology. The chapter addresses the rationale for purposive sampling, use of semi-structured interviews as the method of data collection and the contribution of reflexivity. It explains how my scholarship and experience of promoting spirituality as a perspective of care in education settings have bought me to this research. Phenomenology as methodology suits an enquiry that is interested in the research participants' experience, the 'world as they find it'. The chapter develops both enhanced and amended understandings of spirituality as a resource in coping with loss.
