Cite this article as: hayman B, Wilkes l, Jackson D (2012) Journaling: identificiation of challenges and reflection on strategies. Nurse researcher. 19, 3, 27-31. [[nr2012.04.19.3.27.c9056.pdf]] Related: - [[202308021738 - Journaling need training]] --- Three Challenges to the use of Journaling 1. Poor participation 1. Solutions are: 1. Coaching. 1. **Be explicit and give examples, so that they know what to expect in journaling.** 1. “we decided to provide explicit direction about the types of information participants might want to include in their journals and even presented some examples. these strategies gave participants a better sense of what was expected and, as a consequence, they began to contribute more readily. as the recruitment of participants to this part of the study progressed, we became more confident in giving instructions that gave participants a sense of direction and expectation without restraining their creativity or imposing our values on what was important to them.” (Hayman et al., 2012, p. 29) 2. **Give small journal prompts under each heading to lead the writer.** 1. "“more effective strategy than adding large amounts of information and instructions to individual journal pages is to add small amounts of information frequently. When we created journal pages following interviews, we adjusted the length of the instructions to see if we could increase participation. We found that small amounts of information led to longer, more frequent and more detailed contributions to the journals. Our initial post to the journals was as follows: ‘art, pictures, music, poems – add anything here that defines you as a mother or relates to your experiences of being a lesbian mother. there are no requirements about how frequently to add – just whenever you want to. at least ten posts within the month would be good if you can manage it.’ We added further random questions and statements, occasionally including our experiences as stories. For example, one of the aspects of mothering that the participants were asked to share was about their brightest mothering moment and i [Bh] shared my story. this strategy generated numerous entries about experiences resulting from things their children did or said.” (Hayman et al., 2012, p. 29)" 3. **Avoid using Jargon**. 1. additionally, we avoided using technical terms apart from well-known computer jargon and abbreviations. the participants were using a social networking website to which they already belonged so we included some online text language, such as btw (by the way) and lol (laugh out loud), on the journal pages to promote a sense of comfort and convey that the standard of writing was relaxed. 2. Limiting the journaling period. 1. **Create sense of urgency and expectations by limiting Journaling period** 1. Providing a limit for the journaling period can promote participation (Norman et al 1982) because, when participants can see the end, they are more likely to participate. in our study, participants expected to journal for one month. Given that these couples were all mothers whose children were mostly aged under six years, their time was limited and we realistically expected only a few journal entries, probably in the initial period. Providing a time limit had two benefits: it gave a clear expectation to the participants of how long it would take for data to be collected; and it may have encouraged some to participate as the perceived deadline approached. 3. Follow-up contact. 1. **I think this is really about worker rapport and intentionally bringing up journal and following up with what the patient has written** 1. Follow-up contact with participants will also trigger participation and ‘enhance motivation’ (välimäki et al 2007), particularly in the latter stages when journaling tends to become inconsistent. regular contact, reminders, and trigger comments or questions will help the participants engage with journaling and keep the content on track, drawing out useful information and supporting the participant-researcher relationship. in our study, comments posted weekly to the journal pages were the catalysts for rapid escalations of contributions on most occasions. 2. Feeling exposed 1. **Writer may feel afraid and vulnerable about writing. So important to create a sense of safety and no judgement.** 1. some participants may feel vulnerable or anxious documenting sometimes intimate details of their lives. they may also worry about being judged negatively based on their journal contributions. Others may feel less comfortable with their literacy and writing skills (stopka et al 2004), which can be countered by using oral (audio-recorded) journals (Neaigus et al 1994). 2. **Increase safety by ensuring privacy** [[202308021740 Ensure privacy and confidentiality for journals]] 1. We added privacy clauses to individual journal pages to promote a sense of safety and to guarantee privacy further, some participants used pseudonyms. 3. Staying on Track 1. **Need to strike a balance on the purpose of journal and guide the writer accordingly.** 1. [[202308021733 - What are the different kinds of journalling]] 2. researchers need to be clear about the required content of the journal and ensure that the participants keep to the topic. Participants are giving up valuable time to contribute, so researchers need to ensure that this results in useful, usable data. richardson (1994) argued that journaling instructions need to be broad and flexible or participants will have to be unnecessarily narrow in their thinking; as a result, the information their journals yield may be superficial. in our study, this strategy was not relevant, as the participants needed to ‘drive’ the content of their journals. striking a balance between allowing creativity and expression, and keeping the content of the journal on track is a challenge that is more readily achievable when the researcher and the participants are clear about the purpose of the journal. the purpose may need to be reassessed at specific stages of the journaling process.