Guest Contributor – Maria D. (Rosie) Guerrero, DNP, NP-C, AOCNP

As a student in a bridging program from the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), I have encountered the challenge of transitioning from an evidence-based, practice-focused way of thinking to one grounded in philosophical and scientific inquiry. As a practicing nurse practitioner, I am accustomed to addressing tangible clinical problems, applying evidence-based knowledge, and staying current with scientific evidence to provide safe and effective care. Entering a PhD program, however, has required me to look beyond applying existing knowledge and begin examining the philosophical foundations of how knowledge is developed.

Throughout this journey, I have learned about different methodological approaches to quantitative and qualitative research. Now, as I enter the dissertation development stage, I find myself at another crossroads. Initially, that crossroads involved choosing between quantitative and qualitative inquiry. Having selected qualitative research, I now face another important decision: determining which phenomenological approach best aligns with my research question and the phenomenon I seek to understand.

This crossroads reminds me of Robert Frost’s 1915 poem, The Road Not Taken, in which two roads diverge, and the traveler must choose which path to follow. Frost’s imagery resonates with my scholarly journey because choosing a methodology requires more than selecting a research method. It requires understanding the philosophical assumptions that guide how a researcher views knowledge, experience, and reality. My own “two roads” represent descriptive and interpretive phenomenology (Bouchard, 2014).

This distinction is important to my dissertation on oncology nurse navigators’ lived experiences. Husserl’s descriptive phenomenology describes experiences as lived, while Heidegger’s interpretive phenomenology examines their meaning within social and cultural contexts. My choice will shape how I understand and represent participants’ experiences

One area I initially struggled with was distinguishing between experience and lived experience. Experience may refer to daily work, activity, or interaction and gaining knowledge through that involvement. In my research, however, I am not a nurse navigator and do not participate in the daily work of oncology nurse navigation (Younas & Inayat, 2025).

Lived experience focuses on how people understand and make sense of their everyday lives. My goal is not merely to identify what oncology nurse navigators do when caring for Hispanic patients with aggressive lymphomas who face financial toxicity. Rather, I want to understand and describe how they experience this phenomenon in their everyday professional lives.

While descriptive phenomenology provides the philosophical and methodological foundation for my study, Critical Caring Theory offers a nursing perspective for understanding its significance. This hybrid, middle-range theory draws from nursing science and critical feminist theories. It expands caring science by restoring the social justice focus that shaped early public health nursing but is less visible in many contemporary nursing theories (Falk-Rafael, 2005).

Critical Caring Theory transforms Watson’s carative processes into seven carative health-promoting processes that reflect nursing’s commitments to caring relationships, advocacy, empowerment, equity, and social justice. This perspective is relevant because financial toxicity is not simply an individual financial problem. It is shaped by structural conditions such as inadequate insurance coverage, language barriers, limited resources, employment disruptions, immigration concerns, and inequitable access to timely cancer care.

Oncology nurse navigators work at the intersection of these clinical, financial, cultural, and structural challenges. They help patients understand treatment plans, locate resources, communicate with healthcare teams, overcome barriers, and obtain timely care. These responsibilities are especially important for Hispanic patients with aggressive lymphomas because treatment delays may have serious clinical consequences. Critical Caring recognizes that nursing involves not only caring for individual patients but also addressing the social and healthcare systems that affect their health. Descriptive phenomenology will guide the study of nurse navigators’ lived experiences and their importance to nursing practice and health equity.

With each new course, I feel as though I set sail with a new captain, a professor who guides me through another part of this academic journey. Each course provides new knowledge and tools for navigating unfamiliar waters. Yet, whenever I reach a new port, I find myself at another crossroads.

I now recognize each crossroads as an opportunity for reflection and growth. This journey is not only about completing a dissertation. Each challenge continues to shape my identity as a student, clinician, researcher, scholar, and, as Dr. Freysteinson would say, a nursologist. Like the traveler in Frost’s poem, I am learning that choosing a path requires courage, reflection, and openness to where it may lead.

References

Bouchard, J. (2014). American Poetry of the 20th Century. Salem Press. https://online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?bookId=697&articleName=LCPoet_0027&searchText=frost%20road%20not%20taken&searchOperators=all&category=Literature&activationcode=hccfledu

Falk-Rafael, A. (2005). Advancing nursing theory through theory-guided practice: the emergence of a critical caring perspective. ANS. Advances in Nursing Science, 28(1), 38–49. https://doi.org/10.1097/00012272-200501000-00005

Younas, A., & Inayat, S. (2025). Choosing an analytical approach in phenomenological inquiry. Creative Nursing, 31(2), 217–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/10784535251335056

About Maria Rosie Guerrero

I am an Advanced oncology nurse practitioner with more than 25 years of experience, with the majority of my career dedicated to oncology care. I currently practice in lymphoma and myeloma, where my clinical experiences have shaped my interest in cancer care disparities, financial toxicity, and equitable access to treatment for Hispanic patients. I earned my Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and am currently pursuing a PhD in Nursing through a DNP-to-PhD program at TWU.