Presentation at the American Nephrology Nurses’ Association 42nd National Symposium
By Kara Schick Makaroff
I had the great pleasure to present two research posters at the American Nephrology Nurses’ Association 42nd National Symposium, March 27-30, in Boston. I stood by these posters for six hours and spoke with dozens of conference attendees. More than 1000 people from around the world gathered for the ANNA conference. During breaks, the “Grand Hall” (a massive room filled primarily with pharmaceutical kiosks) was open to attendees. A section of the hall was
reserved for poster presentations. As I spoke with other presenters, I was intrigued to learn that many of them were researchers for large companies (such as Amgen or DaVita) who had entire departments that prepared their research posters. They were also surprised to learn that, as a doctoral student, I had prepared
two posters myself.
The first poster was presented on behalf of our Re-stor(y)ing Life Within Life Threatening Illness research team (Laurene Sheilds, Anita Molzahn, Anne Bruce, Kelli Stajduhar, Kara Schick Makaroff, and Rosanne Beuthin). Our presentation was entitled “Storying and Re-stor(y)ing End Stage Renal Disease” (ESRD). This poster focused on findings from a narrative inquiry exploring peoples’ stories of facing life-threatening illnesses and how liminal experiences affected their understandings of health and living within the context of ESRD, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. Conference attendees were particularly intrigued to talk of the differences between the experiences of those with ESRD compared to those with cancer and HIV/AIDS. Whereas the shock of diagnosis distinctively characterized the experiences of life-threat for those in the latter two groups, ESRD, with its insidious onset, presented little notification of it being a life-threatening illness. While meta-narratives were readily apparent in the stories by participants with cancer and HIV/AIDS, they were less apparent for participants living with ESRD. Rather, many reflected on their lives, contextualizing their experiences of living with ESRD within the broader fabric of their entire lives.
The second poster reflected my dissertation and was entitled “Stories of End Stage Renal Disease: Listening for the Unsayable.” The purpose of this research was to explore individuals’ stories of living with ESRD, particularly those experiences that are unsayable. The unsayable refers to that which is not expressed yet alluded to through language, and may be conscious or unconscious. It is always interwoven with language. Through the use of narrative thematic analysis, the unsayable included the following: living with death, embodied experiences that were difficult to language, that which was unthinkable, unknowable mystery, and that which was untold / unheard. As I spoke with conference attendees about these findings, most began to share of their own stories and they repeatedly said that they found these themes “rang true” for them in their own practice. Abstracts from these two poster presentations were published in Nephrology Nursing Journal, 38(2), 198. I would like to thank the School of Nursing for its support, enabling me to attend and present at this conference through the Dorothy Kergin Endowment Fund.
From 2011 Spring Communiqué
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