1. Making sense of narrative data
Merja Sallinen
PhD, PT, Senior Lecturer
Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, Finland

2. “ A life story tells how the Me of yesterday became the Me of today,
and will become
the anticipated Me of tomorrow”
(Atkinson 2001)

3. Purpose of the study
to discuss and reflect on analysis methods that were used in a research project concerning fibromyalgia patients’ life stories.

4. Challenges Amount of data Versatile data Methodology
20 interviews 2-4 hours each > 500 pages of transcribed text
Versatile data
What can you actually say about individual life stories?
Very different ways of telling
Methodology
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue….

5. Raw data: 500 pages of transcribed text
Work ability
Fatigue
Analysis of the narratives: what was told?
Peer support
Important life events
Narrative analysis: how were the life stories told?
Creating a
core story
of each narrative
Identifying episodes
re-organizing the episodes
Emplotment
> model stories
Recognizing
the turning points
of the storylines
Comparison of the
contents and the
structures of the
told stories

6. Cumulating life
Mundane life
counternarrative

7. Conclusions
The narrative approach is well applicable to fibromyalgia, where the patients strive to make sense of the fluctuating symptoms and of the disruption in the life course that is caused by the illness and its consequences.
Listening to and understanding what, how and why the patients tell about their life, may be essential in improving patient – pt interaction

8. Thank you for your attention!