Phenomenologic research as a theoretic initiative in community health nursing.

Phenomenologic research is a means of developing clarity on the concepts or phenomena that are the focus of community health nursing practice. Phenomenologic methodology is used in a number of disciplines, including nursing. This paper addresses how the researcher identifies the phenomena of interest, decides on the number of participants, gains access to those individuals, collects data, and analyzes and uses the findings. Specifically, community health nurses can use phenomenology to begin to define the concepts perceived to be of primary concern in the practice arena.