Donna Frost

Design and methods 91 4 In terms of working with creative expression and being able to facilitate others to do the same, I was particularly encouraged by Coats’ ( 2001 ) description of helping a health care practitioner prepare to introduce the use of creative arts within a co-operative inquiry. Accounts of how art and artistic expression could be used within healthcare settings among healthcare practitioners and clients to awaken different ways of knowing and being, and to create room for transformation (eg. Coats et al., 2004 ; Coats, Dewing, & Titchen, 2006 ; Titchen & Horsfall, 2007 ; Boomer & McCormack, 2010 ) resonated strongly with descriptions of working with an ‘extended epistemology’ within collaborative inquiry research (eg. Heron & Reason, 2008 ; Mullett, 2008 ; Seeley & Reason, 2008 ; Seeley, 2011 ). I had already experimented with participative methods and the use of creativity in both my work (Frost & Snoeren, 2010 ; Snoeren & Frost, 2011 ; van der Zijpp, van Lieshout, & Frost, 2011 ) and research (Frost, 2008 ; Titchen & Ajjawi, 2010 ; Boomer & Frost, 2011 ) journeys. Becoming comfortable with these ways of working in my own practice laid the groundwork for understanding how to work critically, creatively and hermeneutically to collaboratively generate and interpret data within the CCCI. The structure developed within the CCCI for collaborative meaning making and co- generation of knowledge drew specifically and explicitly on the ‘critical and creative hermeneutic analysis’ approach to the collaborative analysis of data (Boomer & McCormack, 2010 ; van Lieshout & Cardiff, 2011 ), and the structure and processes of ‘critical and creative reflective inquiry’ (Cardiff, 2012 ). Finding and engaging potential participants I searched purposively within a bounded geographical area and among organisations in which I had some form of contact via my professional network for people likely to have some experience with professional artistry in their practice. The first inquirygroup: registered nursesworking in care for older people To find participants for the first inquiry group I approached different health care organisations in the city and surrounding areas near where I lived, and asked if the organisation would be willing to support a number of nurses to participate in the study. My initial inquiries were not fruitful, in part because of the longitudinal nature of the study and the time commitment it asked from participants. Via referrals from those who had declined participation I was brought into contact with a large organisation providing care for older people in the province of Zuid Holland in the Netherlands. The organisation maintained thirteen residential settings and two large community nursing teams. Two, of the fifteen, location managers within the