Frecuencia de visita a centros comerciales y su impacto en la

An exploratory descriptive-interpretivist method was applied to investigate nurses’ experiences of working with intellectual disability in a psychiatric hospital (Eatough & Smith, 2008; Thorne, 2014). Since the study was open to any perspectives of psychiatric intellectual disability nursing, an inductive approach embedded in grounded theory was appropriate and no hypotheses were made prior to data collection (Bryant, 2014; Charmaz & Henwood, 2008). Collaboration with participants regarding research design, data collection, and validation of findings was informed by the study’s intersubjective theoretical framework. Participants took up roles as intellectual disability nursing storytellers, and the researcher as listener and scribe (Hollway & Jefferson, 2013). In co-creating new knowledge, the

researcher did not assume a leading role but was a co-constructor of research that could not have been brought into being otherwise.

1.3.2.1. Participants

All respondents to an invitation to participate comprised the study population. Participants included 16 Black and Coloured male and female nurses from different levels in the nursing department of the particular research site, and registered with the South African Nursing Council (terminology in the Employment Equity Act, RSA 1998). Part-time nurses on adult intellectual disability wards, and nurses on outpatient or non-intellectual disability inpatient wards were excluded from participating. Participant demographics are offered in Chapter 6, but not to an extent that would compromise participant anonymity. Participants are not personally identifiable – not in the research notes, transcriptions, or write-up of the research itself.

For purposes of transparency, the researcher asked for comment and input by presenting nursing staff of the particular research site with a draft of the larger research proposal. An invitation letter was distributed among nursing staff and made available to interested parties at the hospital for the purpose of informing on the research, and to assist in allaying any anxieties potential participants may have had. This letter explained the purpose and

procedures of the research, informed participants of their participation rights, and enclosed contact information in the event of any questions. The researcher also attended Inter-hospitals Intellectual Disability Forum meetings in 2012 where the research was tabled for comment by staff members from intellectual disability services external to the research site. A formal

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presentation of the finalised research proposal was shared with nursing staff as potential participants in February 2013.

As shown in Chapter 6 and prior to beginning the data collection process itself, the researcher attended a meeting at the research site on 20 March 2013 for purposes of providing nursing staff with an opportunity to meet the researcher; informing nursing staff about the goals and processes of the research study; presenting a space for nursing staff to ask questions, clarify uncertainties or insecurities, and make suggestions; and providing the researcher with the opportunity to meet potential nursing participants and begin formulating an idea of the research context. This meeting seemed successful, since some of the nurses shared that the anxieties they were holding about the research had been greatly alleviated. Suggestions and helpful inputs made by nursing staff were incorporated into data collection methodology, for example, prioritising the comfort and convenience of participants during the data collection process; meeting nurses in a place familiar to them (e.g., on their wards so as to avoid disruptions to continuity of care); not impinging on tea or lunch breaks when making data collection arrangements; sharing the results of the research with participants; and

collaborating on steps for disseminating research results.

1.3.2.2. Data collection

Hollway and Jefferson’s (2013) free association narrative interview (FANI) method of collecting data operationalised the aim of creating between each research dyad a unique intersubjective field from which a voice on working with intellectual disability could emerge (S. Swartz, 2006). Interviews approximating 60 minutes were performed with 16 participants in privacy and convenience on their wards. With participants’ permission interviews were voice recorded and transcribed. No hypothetical assumptions were made about care experiences of participants, who were only asked to “tell me about intellectual disability nursing”. Since narratives elicited by free association “secure access to a person’s concerns, which would probably not be visible using a more traditional method” (Hollway & Jefferson 2013, p. 34), employing the FANI method suited the study’s aim of intersubjectively co- creating fresh perspectives on psychiatric intellectual disability work with participants.

1.3.2.3. Data analysis

Grounded theory stresses the importance of generating interpretation as they surface from data by means of an unbiased attending to emerging themes (Bryman 2012; Bryant, 2014;

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Charmaz & Henwood, 2008). These were identified by thoroughly rereading interview transcripts, listening to the recordings, and studying field notes. Attributable to rich material and participants’ similar experiences, it did not take long for thematic saturation to be reached. As interviews with nurses progressed, notes made during and after these were triangulated with audio-recordings and transcriptions (Mello 2002, Terre Blanche et al. 2006). Since “[w]e present ourselves ... in terms of our stories or narratives” (Levett 2002, p. 70), narrative formats employed during nurse interviews were both verbal and non-verbal communication (Ochs & Capps, 1996; Parker, 2005). Participant narratives served as the primary units of investigation, and narrative data were examined and interpreted for common themes (Babbie & Mouton, 2007). Shown in Chapters 6, interpretations are evidenced by verbatim participant accounts and by referencing existing literature.

1.3.2.4. Validity

Participant feedback verified the interpretations of themes as they emerged from the data, as well as the validity of subsequent results. Participants could add information to confirm aspects of data, or ask that inaccurate interpretations be removed. To further verify the findings and provide feedback to participants, results of the research with psychiatric

intellectual disability nurses were offered to the participants, and other interested individuals, at research site 1 on Wednesday 1 October 2014, and at research site 2 on Friday 5 June 2015. Participants were keen for results to be disseminated in peer reviewed publication format, by means of a hospital grand round presentation on Thursday 29 October 2015, as well as by presentation to hospitals’ chief executive officers.