Original ArticleCreating a Synthesis of Intentionality: The Role of the Bracketing FacilitatorDrew, Nancy PhDAuthor Information Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Conn. Corresponding author: Nancy Drew, PhD, Saint Joseph College, 1678 Asylum Ave, West Hartford, CT 06117 (e-mail: ndrew@sjc.edu). Advances in Nursing Science: July-August-September 2004 - Volume 27 - Issue 3 - p 215-223 Buy Abstract The role of a bracketing facilitator during the analysis phase of phenomenological research is discussed. As a research colleague, a bracketing facilitator plays an important part in a fellow researcher's task of uncovering his or her constitutive relationship with the research phenomenon. The primary task of a bracketing facilitator is providing assistance for a colleague in moving away from the usual cognitive mode of thinking during data analysis and into a state of emotional sensitivity to personal history and experience of the phenomenon. A step-by-step approach to the search for personal connections is presented, including an example of the process of facilitating this search. A table of guidelines that includes specific points for the act of bracketing as well as the content to be bracketed is intended as a tool for the development of phenomenological description. © 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
