Qualitative methodologies in health research: interpretive referential of Patricia Benner.

OBJECTIVE this article reports on the experience of using the interpretive phenomenological framework of Patricia Benner in a Brazilian context. Benner's interpretive phenomenology, based on existential and interpretative philosophy, aims to understand human experiences in the particular worlds of research participants. Data were collected through interviews with nine nurses in November and December 2014. RESULTS data analysis process according to Benner's framework consisted of: transcription, coding, thematic analysis, and search for paradigmatic cases and examples. Therefore, the prior knowledge of the researcher is an important part of the study, consisting in manners of the research conduction. CONCLUSION The use of this methodological framework entailed a great challenge for the researcher, however, it also enabled a unique opportunity to illuminate important existential phenomena related to the daily lives of research participants.