Saturation of data was reached with the seventh participant,
but two further interviews were conducted for a
total of nine interviews to ensure no further findings were
discovered. Table 1 shows complete demographic data.
Data analysis followed the method explicated by
Gadamer (2006) and further clarified by Fleming, Gaidys,
and Robb (2003) According to Fleming et al. (2003),
hermeneutic data analysis is really a conceptualization
of how the researcher enters into the hermeneutic circle
through dialogue, becomes immersed in the circular movement
of continual question and answer with the text,
and finally how one understands differently within the
fusion of horizons. The fusion of horizons, as described
by Gadamer, is a shared endeavor, a fusion of both the
researcher’s and participant’s linguistic tradition. For this
researcher, autonomy was first understood as a nurse
who followed directives from physicians and acted autonomously
at the bedside as a patient advocate, and then
as an NP and the sole proprietor of a family NP practice.
Hence, a necessary condition for achieving understanding
was genuinely listening, constantly questioning one’s preconceptions,
or prejudices as an independently practicing
NP, and believing that the text held the truth.
To organize and analyze the interview text systematically,
the four steps suggested by Fleming et al. (2003)
were followed. Generically, although the organization
may appear well defined, in reality the boundaries between
the steps described are necessarily blurred by the
back and forth movement—first reading the whole, then
the parts, and then back again. In this way, the researcher