Story-telling and Ethnographic Research In a Black Storefront Church: Applications to Public Health Nursing

This ethnographic and narrative analysis research was done using a feminist participatory community approach with a small group of poor and working class African American women from a storefront church in the Pacific Northwest. The original purpose of the study was to better understand the question of infant mortality by studying the community and by asking the women their perspectives on the causes of infant mortality. Ethnographic data was collected over 18 months and life history interviews were done with eight women, ages 19-81. In this participatory project, the women shifted the course of the research by defining “health” and “illness” broadly; by critically questioning the objectivity of statistics, noting the influence of racism and classism; and by reframing the question, thus situating it within the context of disparity and inequity. Thus the study became a description of the meanings of health, healing and illness within the women's explorations of their lives as poor and working class Black women. This presentation will focus on how “thick description” and the women's experiences from their stories illuminate the relationships between health disparities, racism, and classism. Strategies (as well as challenges, set-backs, rewards and insights) used to build relationships when there is a power differential between the researcher and community participants will be discussed. This research can help public health nurses to understand more about the communities they serve and to build relationships in their work with poor and working class communities of color.