A/r/tography: a living inquiry into resilience

This qualitative action research used a/r/tography, an arts-based process that involves the creation of art and text in a living inquiry to explore how nurses understand and describe the concept of resilience. Meanings and understandings about resilience emerged from the community of inquiry with participants who encompassed the roles of artists/researchers/teachers. The renderings (contiguity, a living inquiry, metaphors and metonymies, openings, reverberations, and excess) are concepts of the research method with related questions that guided the group to explore resilience. Discussions included stories and images of resilience that generated recurrent themes. Analysis identified the themes of resilience for research participants: connecting an,d reconnecting,· living the questions,· and seeing with new eyes. Implications of the new understandings ofresilience for education, practice, and additional ·research are also considered.