The hidden history of Benjamin Montgomery: Slave, manager, and accountant

Little is known about the contributions of African-American slaves in the histories of various business domains, including accounting. Some authors attribute this scholarly silence to ideological motives due to race-ethnicity and bigotry. Others note that this paucity reflects not only a lack of data but also an inability to adequately approach the contributions of minorities to the accounting profession. Consequently, there are hidden voices in accounting history that should be explored. One of those voices belongs to Benjamin Thornton Montgomery, a Southern slave who became a plantation manager and owner. Observing Montgomery’s practices through the unique historical lens of the ante-bellum period of the United States, we argue that he should also be acknowledged for his responsibilities as an accountant. Accordingly, we use an analytically structured narrative process to examine the compelling case of Ben Montgomery to inform a more accurate and balanced historical foundation of accounting practice in America.

Empathy as a Desideratum in Health Care – Normative Claim or Professional Competence?

This article investigates the possible functions of empathic interpersonal engagement in the context of medicine and health care. While empathy can be understood in different ways on a theoretical level – as an embodied process of resonance and synchronization, as an affective process of emotional sharing, as a cognitive process of understanding the other, or as a narrative process of externalizing and communicating personal experiences – it is often called for on a normative level as a desideratum in the competence of medical professionals. We address this issue by introducing different models of the relationality between doctors and patients, in order to clarify which dimensions of empathy are relevant in which model and raise the question whether empathy is more than a nice-to-have virtue on the side of the professionals.

Experience(s) of the medical profession: A qualitative study using narrative facilitators

Physicians narratives are means to approach and comprehend their experiences. They reveal the practice of medicine, and inform about the physicians embedment in their work and the healthcare context. This study aimed to examine physicians experience by means of interviews based on narrative facilitators, which goal is to encourage storytelling and to support the narrative process. Core stories were elaborated on the key aspects that emerged from the analysis. Thirty-three physicians participated in the study. The findings showed a focus on the transformations of a profession, the need for physicians to adapt in terms of role and status, and their withstanding of conflicting projections from the public and patients. The institutional context was described as darkness in which physicians are moving. When reacting to the quotes from their peers, participants showed a variety of un-patterned stances with regard to different aspects of medicine and the medical profession. Findings also indicated that as narrators, physicians may have particular difficulties accessing their inner world. Disenchanted physicians are not beneficial, neither for the patient nor for the health care system, and their feeling of being worn out may do harm and is certainly negatively affecting themselves and their families.

The Impact of Breakdown in Filiation: The Instance of Children Exiled From Reunion Island to Mainland France Between 1962 and 1984

The aim of this article was to show the consequences of breakdowns in filiation among people born between 1950 and 1970 on Reunion Island, who experienced particular traumas during their childhood. The research participants included 2,015 children exiled from Reunion Island to mainland France between 1962 and 1984 as part of a political project. Most of them we adopted, others were placed in foster families, foster homes, or farms. The forced exile was orchestrated by the French social services in charge of child protection (DDASS). Structured interviews were conducted for 13 people exiled when they were between 2 and 15years old. The interviews were transcribed and then analysed. The results show that these children were exposed to abuse in their filiation through a series of traumas. For them, this abuse is still active today as the French government has not yet acknowledged the suffering of these children. The participants displayed numerous psychic disorders linked to their abandonment. They are still experiencing difficulties in assuming their identity, and these difficulties are transmitted to the next generation. Analysis of the impact of these filiation breakdowns leads the present researchers to suggest a specific clinical setting, based on a focus group, in other words a group therapy aiming to generate a group narrative process.

How does narrative medicine impact medical trainees’ learning of professionalism? A qualitative study

Background Narrative medicine (NM) is an approach involving narrative skills and is regarded as a model for medical humanism and effective medical practice. This study aims to explore how NM impacts medical trainees’ learning of professionalism during a clerkship in a Taiwanese clinical setting. Methods A qualitative interview study adopting a purposive sampling method was undertaken. Thirty medical trainees participated in this study, including five fifth-year medical students (MSs), ten sixth-year MSs, nine seventh-year MSs, and six postgraduate year (PGY) trainees. Thematic framework analysis was applied, and a modified realist evaluation approach was further used to analyse the interview data. Results We identified self-exploration, reflection, and awareness of professional identity as mechanisms explaining how NM impacted professionalism learning in our participants. Furthermore, empathy, communication, doctor-patient relationship and understanding patients were identified as the outcomes of the NM intervention for trainees’ learning of professionalism. Conclusions NM facilitates medical trainees’ self-exploration, reflection, and awareness of professional identity, thereby affecting their learning of professionalism in clinical settings. Adopting NM as an educational intervention in undergraduate medical education could play an important role in professionalism learning, as trainees can thereby be supported to gradually develop self-exploration and reflection capabilities and heightened awareness of professional identity reflectively through a narrative process.

Studio Investigation: An Approach in Studio-Based Research

This article is about a studio investigation that is used as a practical studio-based research method to produce creative works of visual art. Creating an empirical research-oriented visual artwork isa creative process that involved intellectual phase on aesthetic object not an easy process. Studio-based research issimilar just like any other research is to contribute science through the creative work of visual art. Thus in the investigation studio, there are two phases of research method, which is the data generation phase and the artwork phase. For Phase data generation, there are four components of the study element, namely qualitative approach, neo-narrative process, visual research methodology and object (subject of study). The Artwork approach consists of two components - art-making that consists of four-phase elements and studio experience components.

Building Trust: A Cross-Cultural Narrative Process

The transition to fatherhood is a complex journey scarcely researched in Australian First Nations populations. Historical and political legacy, along with cultural traditions must be taken into consideration before exploring the experiences of Australia’s First Nations expectant fathers, especially when the experience is related to the millennia honored “women’s business.” This article shares the challenges, opportunities, and rewards the authors experienced while researching with Australia’s First Nations men who supported their partners during childbirth in a hospital setting. Ethical insights and input from all members of the research team ensured that culturally safe strategies were used to address all encountered difficulties. Building a trusting relationship with the local community was fundamental to the legitimacy, richness, and success of this research project. Lessons learned from this experience can provide an insight to Non-Indigenous researchers choosing to conduct or support research with Australia’s First Nations people in a respectful and meaningful manner.

La crisis del comando en el cine norteamericano de guerra submarina en los períodos de posguerra: los casos de Run Silent Run Deep (Robert Wise, 1958) y Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, 1995)

The command crisis as a story line has been used in many references of the cinema war genre throughout years, but it is in the stories framed under the surface of the sea where it can reach its greatest destabilization capacity. The films of the subgenre suggested to exemplify this study are the North American Run Silent Run Deep (Robert Wise, 1958) and Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, 1995). Both films were produced during a post-war era and narrate the rivalry of a commander and his executive officer in wartime submarines of the United States Navy. Commanding problems severely affect the ecosystem of the ships, creating a struggle for control during patrol. By means of observation, the relationship between History and these films will be analysed, as much as the strategy and narrative process with the objective of verifying keys in the use of the plot.

Revealing Meaning From Story: The Application of Narrative Inquiry to Explore the Factors That Influence Decision Making in Relation to the Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment in The Intensive Care Unit

This paper considers the effectiveness of narrative inquiry as a research method in collecting and analyzing stories from a purposive sample of intensive care nurses and doctors, regarding their perceptions of the factors that influence decision-making in relation to the withdrawal of life sustaining treatment. Delaying the withdrawal of treatment when it is clearly indicated, may result in unnecessary patient suffering at the end of life, distress for the family as well as moral distress for staff. In narrative inquiry participants’ first-hand accounts of their experiences are told through story; the focus of analysis is the story, with the story becoming the object of investigation. Initially, participants’ stories were restoried to produce narratives that were co-constructed between researcher and participant. Narrative analysis, employing McCormack’s lenses and the interconnected analytical lenses, facilitated vertical analysis of each narrative. Horizontal analysis through thematic analysis facilitated the derivation of themes that were consistent within or across narratives. We detail here how narrative inquiry methodology was effective in revealing the meaning participants gave to their decision-making experiences through story, offering a broader understanding of the factors that impact on decision-making regarding the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The study’s findings were powerful, derived from narratives rich and thick in description, depicting a multi-dimensional interpretation of the participants’ perceptions of their decision-making experiences. Participants experienced transformative learning through the narrative process, which led to changes in ways of working in the study setting. Recommendations arose to enhance clinical practice and education in this vital area of practice as a result of this study. The application of narrative inquiry enabled the discovery of significant findings as an avenue to challenge legislation and current opinion regarding the autonomy and role of the family in decision-making.