Método de Exención Incorporado en los CDI Suscritos por el Ecuador

In order to ensure the scientific rigour and trustworthiness of a study, criteria of judging the quality, methodological soundness and adequacy of the qualitative research are applied. This involves evaluating the thoroughness of the research through a procedure that is verifiable (Guba & Lincoln 1989; Holloway & Wheeler 2010). The criteria employed in this research study were credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability, which are outlined below.

4.4.1. Credibility

This is synonymous with internal validity and focuses on the participants identifying the true meaning giving to a situation in their own social context and not according to the researcher‟s

67 idea. In other words, the researcher‟s interpretation of situations should be same as the participants‟ views (Holloway & Wheeler 2010). Credibility was achieved in this study through prolonged engagement on site, member checking and triangulation

4.4.1.1 Prolonged engagement on site

The researcher stayed on site for about 12 months during the research. This was to ensure that the researcher immersed herself in and understood the situation so as to prevent misinformation or distortion of information and to establish a rapport with the participants. The researcher also shared both the raw and analysed data with her supervisor, who is an experienced qualitative researcher. The researcher and her supervisor discussed how the researcher analysed and interpreted her data until both were satisfied with the interpreted data and how the interpretations matched the raw data of the researcher.

Two experienced qualitative researchers were given a subset of both raw and analysed data from each phase to verify whether the interpretation given by the researcher to the data matched the extracts that emerged from the research. The interpretation of the two qualitative researchers largely tallied with the interpretation of the data by the researcher. Where there were discrepancies the researcher had further discussion with the qualitative researcher to gain a deeper understanding of their comments. The researcher sought further advice from her research supervisor, and all of these inputs were incorporated into the final analysis of the data.

4.4.1.2. Member checking

This is the process of verifying the interpreted data of the research to see if the participants‟ reality (interpretation of the situation) is present or not; this can occur during data collection or data analysis. This process allows the participants to correct errors or misinterpretations of the data, clarify their views and provide additional information (Holloway & Wheeler, 2010). The member checking performed the following functions in this research, as suggested by Guba and Lincoln (1989):

 It provided the participants with the opportunity to correct any misinterpretations of the data generated from the participants.

 It gave the participants the opportunity to add additional information which may have been forgotten during the interview process.

68

 It allowed the participants the opportunity to judge the adequacy of the interview and interpreted data.

Member checking was done after the analysis of data from all phases of this study to verify whether the researcher‟s interpretations of the data reflected the participants‟ views.

4.4.1.3. Triangulation

This is a strategy to confirm the credibility of research. It involves using different methods of data collection, different theories or different methodology to examine the same phenomenon under study (Holloway & Wheeler, 2010). This research employed different methods of data collection to triangulate the phenomenon under study: non-participant observation, individual face-to-face interviews and an FGD.

Phase one of the study utilised non-participant observation and individual face-to-face interviews with participants. The researcher triangulated the ensuing data with observations through that process, and was able to find some similarities in the data generated from the observations and individual face-to-face interviews. Some of the findings included structural- related factors, antenatal card-related and workload-related factors to screening for IPV. Phases two and three of the research employed mainly the non-participant-observation method, which was triangulated with the FGD. The researcher was able to use these two methods of data collection to confirm the existence of AAS tool-related challenges, practice- related challenges and recommendation to IPV screening.

4.4.2. Transferability

This is a process in which findings from a research study can be applied to other similar situations or participants. To achieve this, the researcher provided a thick description of the research, which is the account of the complex processes involved in the research and a holistic description of the phenomenon under study. An audit trail was also kept by the researcher, which is a detailed description and documentation of the research process (Holloway & Wheeler, 2010). The description of the sample and setting of the research was provided in detail, with a view to giving a clear understanding of how representative the sample and setting were and the extent to which the findings can be generalised to a similar settings and samples.

69 4.4.3. Dependability

This is the result of the process through which the findings from a research study are made consistent, stable and accurate (Holloway & Wheeler, 2010). The methodology was followed diligently according to standard and universally endorsed rules of the scientific community. Where the researcher had to deviate from laid-down rules she documented every decision- making process and reasons for such deviations. This was to enable the outside viewer to judge and understand the salient factors that led to such decisions and interpretations, as recommended by Guba and Lincoln (1989). Dependability was also achieved in this research by keeping a dependability audit trail; that is, the researcher documented all the logic processes and the methodological decisions in the research as well as the step-by-step technique of data analysis, which led to the production of subthemes and themes. These were described in detail to give the research dependability, as suggested by Flick (2009).

4.4.4. Confirmability

This refers to the assertions that the data, interpretations and findings of the research are rooted in the context and are not the assumptions of the researcher herself (Guba & Lincoln, 1989). Confirmability was achieved in this research by the researcher bracketing herself before embarking on the research. Bracketing can be defined as the process of suspending one‟s belief and prior assumptions about a phenomenon (Holloway & Wheeler 2010). A confirmability audit trail was also kept, which included the communications between the researcher and her participants during the individual face-to-face interviews and the FGD. A detailed description and documentation of the data collections process, analyses and compression of the data were also kept. The coded data were shared with the researcher‟s supervisor and two other qualitative researchers for peer debriefing and verification of the interpreted data. Member checks were carried out with the participants for all of the phases of the research to verify the interpreted data.

4.5 Conclusion

To conclude this chapter, data were managed using Microsoft Word for easy retrieval using a password to protect the information. Thematic analysis was conducted using Yin‟s five stages of analysis cycle as a guide in analysing the data. Thereafter verification of the analysed data was carried out with two experienced qualitative researchers to ensure credibility of the study. Member checking was also conducted with the research participants. Five themes

70 emerged in phase one, four themes in phases two and three. The findings will be discussed in the next chapter.

71

CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS OF ALL OF THE PHASES IN THE STUDY

This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section describes the sample of participants. The second section discusses the findings related to phase one, which had two objectives: 1) to describe midwives‟ current screening practices for IPV among pregnant women in northern Nigeria, and 2) to determine and describe the factors that influence the midwives‟ screening of pregnant women for IPV in a northern Nigerian hospital. The third section discusses the findings of phases two and three, which had the following objectives: 1) to determine the challenges encountered by the midwives in using the AAS tool among pregnant women in a northern Nigerian hospital, and 2) to adapt the AAS tool for screening pregnant women for IPV in northern Nigeria. The findings of each phase informed the subsequent phase; however, these are presented together in this chapter for technical purposes and to demonstrate the coherence of the whole process.