SOBRE LA PRISION PREVENTIVA

An introductory letter was posted to the sampled pharmacies because participation rates may be adversely affected by "cold" telephoning (Oppenheim, 1992). The letter introduced the researcher, explained the purpose of the research very generally, and announced that the pharmacist would be receiving a telephone call within the next few days, requesting their participation in an interview. The letter emphasised that any data collected would be strictly confidential and that participating pharmacists would remain anonymous.

The letters were posted between 19^ February and 16* July 1992, and each one was followed by a telephone call after a few days. The purpose of the telephone calls was to recruit community pharmacists to participate in the interviews and then to arrange appointments for the interviews. The researcher introduced herself as a research pharmacist based at the London School of Pharmacy, and explained that she was telephoning in connection with the introductory letter which had been posted to the pharmacy a few days earlier. In the majority of cases, the pharmacists were unaware that they had received such letters. This was an important finding and suggests that the value of sending an introductory letter is questionable.

The contents of the introductory letter were repeated in a more informal manner during the telephone calls. The researcher aimed to increase respondents* motivation to co­ operate and stressed that it was their views and opinions that were being sought rather than factual information. Only the general topic of the interview was explained so that participants would be unable to prepare answers in advance. The researcher explained how the community pharmacist had been selected, and that all responses would be

complete. Telephone calls were made during the time of day when community pharmacists could be expected to be less busy and more likely to agree to being interviewed, for example during early afternoon when most CPs' surgeries are closed. The researcher explained that she would be able to visit the pharmacy at the most convenient time for the pharmacist. Appointments were made with those pharmacists who were willing to be interviewed and the reasons for pharmacists' unwillingness to participate in the research, were elicited if possible.

Appointments were confirmed by telephone either on the day before the interview or on the morning of the interview, and in fact a number of appointments had to be rescheduled because the pharmacists had forgotten about the interviews and arranged locum cover. This was a reminder of the priority some pharmacists placed on participating in the research.

2,2.9 Data Collection.

Processes of impression management would occur unavoidably, when the researcher entered the pharmacy:- the pharmacist would form a first impression of the researcher based on her appearance, style of dress, age, sex and accent The researcher aimed to create a professional and favourable image without allowing her own personal character to come across. The researcher carried written identification which could be produced on request

On arrival in the pharmacy, the researcher introduced herself and thanked the pharmacist for participating in the interview in advance. She tried to establish a good rapport with the pharmacist, mentioning her experience in community pharmacy. A few preliminary details were explained such as the general purpose of the research, the value of the pharmacist's opinions, the confidentiality of the recorded data, the anonymity of the respondent, and the approximate length of time needed to complete the interview. The researcher explained that she would answer any questions at the end of the interview, so as not to bias the pharmacist's own responses. The researcher explained that the majority of questions were open-ended and that there would not be right or wrong answers to the questions, since the personal views of the respondent were sought. Respondents were asked to attempt to answer all questions, even if their relevance was not apparently obvious. The researcher explained that if the pharmacy became too busy, she was happy to wait until the busy spell had passed, or could even return to conçlete the interview on another day.

There is evidence that recording responses by note-taking during interviews results in selective recording and substantial systematic error is incorporated into the data (Oppenheim, 1992). The only way of reducing errors in recording of data is by obtaining

a verbatim report of the interview, e.g. by tape-recording the responses. Therefore a Sony Professional Walkman and microphone was used to record responses where possible during this phase of data collection.

The use of tape-recorders enables the interviewer to concentrate fully on asking questions and listening to responses, without having to write notes (Moser and Kalton, 1971). Moser and Kalton(1971) suggest that the use of tape-recorders may lower participation rates. In this study pharmacists were encouraged to participate and then after having agreed to be interviewed, they were asked w heth^ they would mind having their responses tape-recorded. Therefore the use of the tape-recorder was not responsible for lowering the response rate.

The benefits of tape-recording the interview in terms of the time taken to conduct the interview and the accuracy of the data, were explained to the participating pharmacist Then the permission of the pharmacist to allow the interview to be tape-recorded was sought. If granted, the microphone was located in a convenient place where it would not interfere with the dispensing process or pick up too much background noise. The researcher explained that she would stop the tape-recorder at any point if there were interruptions or if the interviewee requested e.g. to make any comments "off the record." In fact 45 pharmacists agreed to have their interviews tape-recorded and data from the remaining 5 interviews was recorded as accurately as possible in note form, because these pharmacists objected to having their responses tape-recorded.

After the introductory information had been given, the researcher proceeded with the interview according to the schedule (Appendix 2). She tried to remain neutral throughout the interview and to maintain rapport with the responding pharmacist, in order to enhance the quality of the data. The interviewer inserted probes e.g. "would you tell me a little more about that please?" to try to elicit a more detailed response or to explore an interesting remark made by the responding pharmacist, when appropriate. The last question in Section A, enabled the interview to flow into either Section B or Section C, according to the topic areas which the responding pharmacist thought should be addressed by health promotion from pharmacies. Only one of the 50 respondents mentioned HTV/AIDS at this point and the questions in Section C were asked before those in Section B for this interview. In the other 49 interviews, the order was maintained according to the schedule. When the end of the interview schedule had been reached, the interviewee was asked if there were any comments they would like to make, or questions they would like to ask the researcher.

observations in the pharmacy. Statements supported by current observable practice in the pharmacy had greater credibility and validity.

At the end of each interview the researcher noted down the background information which included characteristics about the pharmacist, the pharmacy, and the pharmacy clientele (Appendix 3). This information was collected by a combination of interview and observation techniques, as necessary.

The participating pharmacists were asked to consider 14 hypothetical pharmacist activities, within the context of the pharmacy in which they worked and to classify each either as a health promotion activity or an activity which they perceived to be other than a health promotion activity. Then interviewees were asked to rank the activities in order of importance using a visual aid, which comprised a white card on which individual pieces of card representing each activity could be moved around, until the pharmacist was satisfied with the rank of each activity.

After leaving the pharmacy premises, the researcher noted down any general comments about the interview, e.g. any extraneous circumstances that may have influenced the data. For instance, one participating pharmacist admitted that he had expressed his views about drug misusers much more strongly on the occasion of the interview than he would have done a week before, because his pharmacy had been broken into by thieves looking for controlled drugs, on the previous weekend. Notes were made about any specific problems encountered during data collection and how these problems would be addressed as the fieldwork continued.

2.2.10 Problems encountered during Data Collection.