INTENDENCIA MUNICIPAL

The following section will focus on the validity of the research design of this study.

1.9.2.1 Validity

Validity refers to the measure of the truth or accuracy of a claim. Validity provides a major basis for making decisions about which findings are sufficiently valid to add to the evidence base for practice (Grove et al 2013:197). Internal validity and external validity are noted.

1.9.2.1.1 Internal validity

Internal validity refers to the degree to which changes in the dependent variable (effect) could be attributed to the independent variable (cause) (Brink et al 2012:213). As this study is not experimental in nature, the results of the research should not be affected by extraneous variables that can influence the findings of the study (Brink et al 2012:90).

1.9.2.1.2 External validity

According to Brink et al (2012:212), external validity refers to the degree to which study results can be generalised to other people and other research settings, other than the one studied or respondent samples from the eight (8) selected hospitals that took part in the study. In this study, the research results will not be generalised to other settings that did not take part in the study.

1.9.3 Population

This section will focus on the population. According to Brink et al (2012:131), a population is an entire group of persons or objects that is of interest to the researcher, and is a population that meets the inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria for this study were that a respondent must be a registered nurse working as a nurse manager or registered nurse in one of the eight public hospitals in the Ehlanzeni District, Mpumalanga.

In this study, the population is divided into a site population and a respondent population.

 Site population

The site population consists of the three districts of the Mpumalanga Province with its 28 public hospitals.

 Respondent population

The respondent population consists of 884 registered nurses, of which 155 are nurse managers. The two groups of respondents will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 3.

1.9.4 Sampling

According to De Vos et al (2011:223), a sample is a subset of the population considered for actual inclusion in the study. It is the process by which elements are drawn from the population (Fox & Bayat 2007:54).

Sampling refers to the process of selecting representative units of a population for a research study in order to obtain information regarding a phenomenon (Basavanthappa 2007:188). In quantitative research, there are two approaches of sampling namely probability and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling involves random selection of elements. In probability sampling, the researcher can specify the probability that an element of the population will be included in the sample (Polit & Beck 2008:340). Probability sampling includes the following techniques: simple random sampling, systematic random sampling, stratified random sampling and cluster sampling (Brink et al 2012:134).

Non-probability sampling is a process in which a sample is selected from elements or members of a population through non-random methods (Brink et al 2012:215). Non- probability is a sampling approach in which the researcher cannot estimate the probability that each element of the population will be included in the sample (Basavanthappa 2007:562). In this study, probability sampling will be carried out for the hospitals.

The researcher needs to decide on the size of the sample to be included in the study. A sample size refers to the percentage of the population the researcher would want to study (De Vos et al 2011:227). A large sample is important in a quantitative study. The larger the sample, the more representative of the population it is likely to be and the smaller the sampling error is (Polit & Beck 2008:348).

1.9.4.1 Sampling technique

Sampling technique is the means of selecting an element or unit from a population. The sampling technique includes probability or random sampling. Random sampling is a method of drawing a sample of a population so that all possible samples of a fixed size have the same probability of being selected (De Vos et al 2011:226). In this study, sampling is relevant to the site population; the total respondent population was approached to participate, thus seeking to do a census.

 Site sampling

Site sampling was conducted by means of simple random sampling. The names of the three districts enclosed within the Mpumalanga Province were placed in a hat and one district was drawn to take part in the study. District 1 was selected, which contains eight public hospitals relevant to this study.

 Respondent selection

As the largest number of respondents, within the given population was sought for this study, no respondent sampling was carried out but a census was conducted. The allocation lists of each nursing unit within the eight selected hospitals were used to count the number of nurse managers and registered nurses allocated to each nursing unit. The counting included all nurses who were on day duty, night duty and those who were on leave. The researcher used a census in order to give all nurses the opportunity to participate in the study. A census refers to the counting of all the people in the population (Vasuthevan & Mthembu 2013:61). A census is also defined as a survey covering an entire population. A census includes information about the characteristics of the entire population within a territory (Fox & Bayat 2007:87). This is done in order to enhance the representativeness of the sample (Polit & Beck 2008:340).

1.9.5 Data collection

Data collection refers to the systematic collection of data in the course of a study (Basavanthappa 2007:363). The researcher used one questionnaire for both the nurse managers (Group A) and the registered nurses (Group B) to acquire the explorative and descriptive data in view of their empowerment, or lack thereof.