The next step in IPA is to develop emergent themes from the noted transcript to capture understanding, supported by extracts and quotations from the text, which become important anchors for findings. A mapping of connections, similarities, differences and patterns took place at this stage, and the analysis shifted from looking at the transcript as a whole to gradually narrowing it down into parts.
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I always kept the hermeneutic circle in mind during the analysis, as explained in 3.2.1.b, so that discrete chunks continued to be interpreted in light of the whole, and vice versa, as meaning making was worked back and forth. Data were therefore explicated in this way (Smith, 2008), meaning that parts of the phenomenon of transnational medical and nursing education came under microscopic scrutiny as themes emerged, yet the whole context, and my research questions, were still in clear focus (Hycner, 1999).
To tease out emergent themes, the flow of narrative was broken up and rearranged into common parts or themes so that data could be captured. A synergy arose at this point between the participant’s narrative and my own researcher’s interpretation, and I felt myself being drawn into and becoming part of the data analysis process. Table 3.6 overleaf demonstrates how emergent themes were generated from the previous step of initial noting/commenting. Emergent themes were noted on the far left hand side of the transcript.
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Emergent Theme
Transcript B (Dana) School of Nursing pages 6/7 Possible Theme Initial noting/comments Careers and social roles Facing up to challenges Actively looking for experience Fiancé supportive Another man would not understand Challenges in relationships
…now we have the ambition of um the females not like from outside not closed minds..so we have good examples in the university also of women who are
housewives who have children and are very excellent at work…I want to have all that too! (laughs) I want to have a family I want to have a career… because I see people who are working with me in my hospital and who are from other universities they want to only work in a health centre so it is only morning shift and so it is easier…and um er there is no definition of no you should go to the place where you belong or where you can get more experience from… whenever I say to
anybody from CHS that I want critical care it’s like oh why critical care is not good for women especially for you… you are engaged you are about to marry .. …they think like that!
Me : And what does your fiancé think about that?
Dana : Well because he’s from RCSI and he knew me before… he’s a nurse…see! (shows me picture of her fiancé on her telephone)… so he totally understands and he encourages me to do what I want and to go for the most experience…for the place where I will gain more experience and er um I think if it is was another man he wouldn’t be so
understanding (laughs) even if I took a man
who was ambitious but not a nurse I don’t
think he will understand… it’s really hard to understand nursing … especially for females in our culture it’s really hard.
Conflicting female roles Importance of significant others to succeed Cultural boundaries
There are examples in the university of women who have children and who have a successful career- She wants the same
Feminist thinking??
She wants experiences in
challenging areas such as critical care
The reaction is : …’oh why …critical care is not good for women especially for you… you are engaged, you are about to marry …’
Fiance is a nursing graduate from RCSI so he understands and encourages
“…even if I took a man who was ambitious but not a nurse I don’t think he will
understand… it’s really hard to understand nursing … especially for females in our culture it’s really hard…”
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The emergent themes were then mapped into clusters. I did this by typing lists of possible themes, and moving them around in a process of abstraction to form similar groups of themes. The groups of themes, or clusters, were then consolidated and
renamed under a superordinate theme in a ‘creative’ process (Smith et al., 2009, p.184). This process was repeated for each transcript, and involved a reiterative movement of to- ing and fro-ing from the cluster to the transcript text and back again to tweak out what the text was really saying beneath the typed words, and to reconfirm the appropriate
clustering.
Table 3.7 below is an example of a cluster of emergent themes from Transcript 5 (Shireen, SoM) which was braided to form the superordinate theme of ‘‘Becoming’ a doctor or a nurse’.
‘Becoming’ a doctor or a nurse
Challenges: Bahraini males/relationships/work culture/role conflict Rethinking stereotyped Bahraini male/female gender roles
Empowerment
Equality in the clinical environment: Belongingness Multiple selves: We/I
Distinguishing a personal/professional self
Overcoming religious and cultural taboos to study and practice medicine/nursing
Setting Standards: from university to clinical practice Forming a transnational community of medical & nursing practice
Table 3.7 : Clustering of themes under the superordinate theme of ‘‘Becoming’ a doctor or a nurse’.
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