Phenomenology as a way of understanding in nursing

This paper discriminates between Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology. It also discusses some of the implications of each of these phenomenological approaches for nursing research. Phenomenological research techniques offer nurses a valuable way to understand the lifeworld of nursing. While there has been a lot written by nurses about phenomenology as a nursing research technique, the essential differences between these two phenomenological schools have not adequately been documented. This paper suggests that each of these approaches offers nurse researchers significantly different perspectives about the human condition.