Please forward to any colleagues or students who may be interested: NB this
is a change from the earlier-listed seminar for this date.


 

Graduate Seminars in Narrative

The NOVELLA ESRC Research Node, Institute of Education and

 The Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London 

African and African-Caribbean Londoners' experiences of cancer services:
A narrative approach

Marvelle Brown, University of Bedfordshire 

Tuesday March 12, 5.00-6.30

The Library, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University
of London, 27-8 Woburn Square, London WC1H OAA

Cancer is a devastating diagnosis for both the individual and their loved
ones, and there is a plethora of research on the subject. However, there is a
dearth of health research related to cancer which specifically focuses on
African and African-Caribbean Londoners and their experiences of services.
This study is the first in the United Kingdom to use a narrative approach to
gain an understanding of Black and minority ethnic (BME) cancer patients'
experiences. The study's dialogic analysis was underpinned by taking a unique
approach to illness narrative theories, combining Bury's (2001) 'moral and
contingent narrative' categories with Hydén's (1997) 'illness as narrative'
analysis, and adapting them to incorporate ethnicity. Building ethnicity into
these illness concepts provided an avenue to consider an element which plays
a crucial role in healthcare interactions. Murray's (2000) four levels of
narrative analysis (personal, interpersonal, socio-political, positional) was
used as a framework to both integrate and discuss the findings.  As a
qualitative research method, narrative research proved valuable in enabling
an understanding of issues that affect African and African-Caribbean
communities in relation to cancer and receiving cancer services. It also
enabled the research to take account of oral traditions of African and
African-Caribbean communities, and such an approach can reveal the depth of
their lived experience and how those experiences shape their behaviour in
relation to health and illness. A case study approach, using snapshots from
some of the narratives, and demonstrating the journey of discovering
narrative themes and interpreting their meaning, will be used for this
presentation. My position within the study will also be examined.

Marvelle Brown is Senior Lecturer, University of Bedfordshire. She has worked
in the NHS and nurse education for over 30 years.  She is a nurse, midwife
and health visitor, and she was a senior specialist sickle cell and
thalassaemia counsellor, before taking up her career in education.  In 1991,
she developed the first professionally and academically recognised clinical
haematology course for nurses in England. She was a member of one of the
working groups which led to the development of NICE Guidance in
Haemato-Oncology. She was Chair of the RCN Haematology/BMT Forum and is Chair
of the Forum for Acute Nurses Forum for Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia.
Marvelle has written chapters in a number of books as well as publishing in
peer-reviewed journals. She is co-author of the first haematology nursing
book in the UK. She was named as one of the top 10 nurses in Cancer by the
Sunday Independent in 2003. She is an invited speaker nationally and
internationally on a wide number of issues in haematology nursing.  She has
significant interests in culture and health inequalities and cancer, which
were the primary impetus for her thesis. 

All welcome, especially graduate students.  For further details contact
Corinne Squire ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ) or Rowena
Lamb ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  ). Details are also on the
CNR website: http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/home.htm
<http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/home.htm>  .