Data Analysis

Data for qualitative research usually consists of people’s stories, thoughts feelings and expressions. Their participation is a process of ‘sharing’ their experience with the researcher and presenting them with their ‘story’ which is something that featured strongly in this particular study. To talk about their experience of something, particularly if the subject is personal or painful, is disclosing an intimacy that is their existence as a human being and forms part of the process of data collection (Holloway, 2005). I have identified that I have taken the position of limited realist (section 3.2 page 41) in this study and because of my personal views towards spirituality I have been able to offer an alternative perspective within the analysis from the strong Catholic influences of some of the study participant’s responses. After data collection, the next part of the research process according to Polit and Beck (2010) is to process the data. This is done by transcription, coding and classifying in a way that enables analysis, interpreatation and subsequent dissemination.’

One of the researcher’s tasks is then to select enough elements from the data to allow description and understanding which are part of the development of new knowledge for the purpose of explanation or practice improvements.

3.4.1 Template Analysis

Template Analysis (TA) (King, 2012) is a particular style of thematic analysis which was chosen as a suitable method for data analysis in this study. TA has been used previously in healthcare research, including research with healthcare professionals

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(Waddington and Fletcher, 2005). It involves the development of a coding template, which summarises themes identified in a qualitative data set through a process of coding and organises these themes in a meaningful and useful manner (Brooks et al, 2015). TA is a pragmatic technique which can be applied within a range of different qualitative research approaches and is adaptable to the needs of a particular study (King and Brooks, 2017).

A particular feature of Template Analysis is that, in contrast to some other forms of thematic data analysis, a coding template may also reflect lateral relationships across theme clusters. Themes which permeate several distinct clusters are referred to as integrative themes. For example, in a study of diabetic renal disease (cited in Brooks et al, 2015) King et al. (2002) identified ‘stoicism’ and ‘uncertainty’ as integrative themes which pervaded discussion no matter what was being talked about in the research interviews. In the present study, as will be discussed in the following section, the ability to identify a theme as integrative proved a very useful way to analyse and present the findings.

3.4.2 Analysis of the study data

There were seventeen interview audio and transcripts which were to be analysed. As this was a relatively small study I was able to read through the data set three times to familiarise myself with the data. I found this part of the process particularly interesting. Sometime had elapsed from the interview through transcription and each process offered me a different perspective on what was said. It was strange listening to an interview I participated in and I noticed there were some parts in the dialogue I wished I could have revisited to explore further. Similarly, the written word again offered another perspective and showed emphasis on words and phrases that were not obvious through listening. Following this I then carried out preliminary coding. As I reviewed the transcripts I highlighted any statement, word or section which seemed to meaningfully contribute to the research question. After initially highlighting the emergent themes, they were organised into clusters and this was facilitated by using sticky-notes and flip chart paper. This method was chosen because it allowed me to easily move or replicate extracts and put them into other themes or clusters whilst still being able to view where

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they were in order to have a visual overview. This part of the process helped group the themes into meaningful clusters in preparation for further analysis. It was at this point I transcribed the extracts on sticky-notes into a word document which was further refined into an initial version coding template. Further work was undertaken to apply this initial template to data – further analysis showed that some replication had occurred and that clearer delineation was needed in relation to some themes. Some existing themes were amalgamated or further refined into other themes or sub-themes. I found that in the early part of the process I used many terms for similar things that offered far more detail than was necessary and made the data difficult to manage. This was until other headings were used to encompass the various detailed meanings. There were also other elements to the interviews that interested me but did not really apply to the research question and I had to consider what I could use as evidence for my study and what was interesting but not relevant. The initial stages of the template formulation appeared time consuming and difficult but as the coding and re-coding continued an improved version of the template was devised. Polit and Beck (2010) said that the goal of research is to produce data of exceptional quality and every decision made by researchers about data management is likely to affect quality and therefore the quality of the study. I found the simplicity of the sticky notes offered a visual perspective that cannot be achieved on a computer screen. I also felt it was less stressful for me to practically manage as I was not having to navigate unfamiliar computer software. However, this process may be more difficult if a team of people were working on the data where computer access to a single data set would be more appropriate. How data mapped onto and evidenced themes became increasingly easier and apparent and a hierarchical structure was developed with four main top-level themes (each with sub- themes). One of the main themes was an integrative theme ‘fear and anxiety’ which permeated across the others. The top-level themes identified were:

1. Role of spirituality from personal perspective

2. Influences on professional understandings of spirituality 3. Nursing spiritually

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Following this the coding template was applied to a subset of the data to ascertain its utility. After working through five transcripts, some further modifications were made to the template at the subtheme level with some reorganisation and some existing sub- themes further re-defined or deleted. The supervisory team then each applied the template to a number of sections of contrasting data to establish its effectiveness. When a final version of the template was developed that was agreed to be an effective representation of the data, I then applied it to the full data set (see Appendix 6 for template).

The final template and interview transcripts were then uploaded on to an electronic data analysis program NVIVO. This substantially helped in coding data to the template’s themes and subthemes which could then be easily presented to show the hierarchical structure and findings and show how the theme ‘fear and anxiety’ integrated across the other themes.