Data analysis from the individual interviews

The researcher analyzed the interviews qualitatively using qualitative content analysis. Elo and Kyngäs (2007) noted three phases of qualitative content analysis and further noted that even though qualitative content analysis does not have a systematic way to analyze data, the researcher must provide clear details of how the analysis was done to ensure trustworthiness. When using qualitative content analysis, the researcher can use inductive content analysis if the phenomenon under study has limited or fragmented knowledge, allowing the categories to emerge from the data. A deductive analysis can be used when the researcher is attempting to

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test or validate a theory, hence the use of already set concepts (Hseih & Shanon, 2005; Elo & Kyngäs, 2007). A third type of qualitative content analysis has been noted by Hseih and Shanon (2005), namely summative content analysis. This approach identifies and quantifies the words in an attempt to obtain an understanding of how the words are used in the contexts studied. In this study, the analysis started as inductive and later the findings were combined with the findings of the NGT content analysis (Hseih & Shanon, 2005; Elo & Kyngäs, 2007). The inductive content analysis used in the study provides the advantage of obtaining information directly from the participants. The researcher avoided having preconceived ideas that could be imposed on the process of analysis with the use of already set concepts guiding analysis, as noted by Hseih and Shanon (2005). To ensure clarity, data were analyzed by combining the process of qualitative content analysis as described by Elo and Kyngäs (2007) and the modified steps in interpretive data analysis as outlined by Terre Blanche et al. (2006). The analysis was conducted in three phases, namely preparation, organization and interpretation, as reflected in Figure 3-5.

Figure 3-5: Process of content analysis that was followed.

 Preparation phase

This phase included three main activities, namely planning, choosing a unit of analysis and familiarization and immersion, activities that have been noted as important to be completed

INTERPRETATION PHASE

Interpretation Checking

ORGANIZING PHASE

Open coding Inducing themes Creation of

categories Elaboration PREPARATION PHASE

Planning: labeling,

transcription and correction Choice of unit of analysis

Familiarization and immersion        

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before one can start the actual analysis of data. The planning activities included creating some order in the data in terms of storing and labelling data from each category of participants, listening to recorded interviews, then reading the transcribed interviews while making corrections as they were being recorded and transcribed. In addition to being part of data analysis, this process also allowed the researcher to reflect and identify aspects that could be included in subsequent interviews to ensure in-depth collection of data, as data analysis and data collection usually run concurrently in a qualitative approach.

The other activity completed was making a choice about the unit of analysis. In qualitative content analysis, a unit of analysis has also been named a meaning unit by Graneheim and Lundman (2004), and can be a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a whole interview or a theme (Terre Blanche et al., 2006; Elo & Kyngäs, 2007). This identification of unit of analysis guided the researcher to make a decision about the size of written text that will be considered big enough to provide a meaning, and small enough to provide specificity in terms of content and context relating to what the participant is talking about in the one specific interview. For this study, the unit of analysis was the full paragraph, allowing the researcher to capture the meaning of the section being read, and this facilitated the identification of codes and themes.

The other activity in this phase of analysis was related to engaging and gaining an understanding of the data through reading, taking notes, observation and brainstorming, as these have been noted to be the important first steps of data analysis in qualitative research (Terre Blanche et al., 2006; Bazeley, 2013; Creswell, 2014). For this study, after all the corrections were done for each interview the researcher reread it again numerous times to become familiar with the content of the interview, writing notes and reflections in term of the meanings that were obtained from the data and how they relate to the first research question of the study, that is about the identification of HIV and AIDS-related competencies for a nurse in South Africa.

 Organizing phase

This phase includes activities that are the core of the analysis, namely coding, inducing themes, creating categories and elaboration. Coding was done by breaking down a body of data into meaningful units and meaning, rather than words that were considered. As the researcher read the interviews, the aspects that related to competencies related to HIV and AIDS were identified and coded. These aspects were identified by looking at what is reported

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as the role of a nurse, what nurses struggle with, and what nurses do or are expected to do with regard to HIV and AIDS care. The codes that were obtained from the data were grouped together based on meaning, allowing for synthesis that provided sub-themes, themes and categories, and these were later combined with the results of the qualitative content analysis done for the NGT discussion. The elaboration of process involved the description and defining of the themes, and these themes are what Creswell (2014) specifies as being the main findings of the study. The first phase of the study related to the identification of HIV and AIDS-related competencies for HIV and AIDS, the themes related to the core competencies and the sub-themes related to the specific competencies in each core competency.

 Interpretation and checking

Interpretation as the final step in data analysis provides the opportunity to make sense of all the data, while the researcher revisits the analysis carefully to identify any weakness in the analysis that needs to be corrected, as well as ensuring that the data are not merely summarized (Terre Blanche et al., 2006). Interpretation was compiled when the analysis was completed, allowing for the creation of links between the competencies and sub- competencies, as well as the development of a model for a framework for HIV and AIDS- related competencies, as reflected in Chapter 4. Checking was done through various presentations of the findings to various audiences that included some of the participants, and this provided the opportunity to obtain feedback and clarification about any misinterpretation that the researcher could have made.