There were two interviews for the participants in this research. The first interview began the research. Following the first interview, the researcher conducted participant observations. After the observations were completed, the second interview was conducted in order to gather further details and to clarify issues that arose while interpreting and analysing the data.
3.10.1 The first semi-structured interview
The first interview was conducted when the data collection began in July 2003. It was a semi- structured interview with 12 questions designed by the researcher about the self-directed learning
of nurses in clinical practice. The interview questions investigated the self-directed learning process of the participants; what and how participants learned, why they wanted to learn, how they went about learning, who and what helped and supported their learning, how they felt when they were learning, and how the nurse educator encouraged or did not encourage them. The interview questions for the first interview of nurses are in Appendix A. Eleven questions, relating to the encouragement of nurses in undertaking self-directed learning, were designed for the interviews of the nurse educators. The interview questions for the first interview of the nurse educators are in Appendix B. Each participant was interviewed for 60 minutes. Each interview took place in a private room on the participant’s ward and was conducted in the Thai language.
The researcher was the interviewer. A tape-recorder was used to record the interview. Before interviewing, each participant was asked permission for the interview to be recorded. The researcher interviewed the nurse participants one by one until all seven participants had been interviewed. After that the researcher started interviewing nurse educators one by one until all four of them had been interviewed using the same interview process as for nurse participants. After each participant was interviewed, the researcher transcribed the tape of that interview into Thai. The researcher then summarized, in English, the answers to each research question and submitted them to the principal supervisor in order to receive comments that were later used as information to further develop the interview method for the second interview. When the first semi-structured interview for all eleven was participants finished, the researcher analysed and synthesized the data in order to write a summary, in English, of the findings from each interviewee’s responses to each research question.
3.10.2 Participant observation
The researcher conducted participant observations and witnessed the conditions and situations of the self-directed learning process that happened to each participant as she worked in one of seven different wards. The researcher observed the participants (who were the researcher’s
colleagues) from Monday to Friday, 8 am – 4 p.m., from August 2003 to January 2004. During the observation period, the researcher observed the participants by working with them and
watching them while they were working. As a member of the nursing team, the researcher worked collaboratively with participants during the period of observation.
As a colleague, the researcher takes responsibility in promoting and facilitating nurses’ education for two participants of this research. The researcher has no authority over her colleagues in terms of work appraisal, assessment or evaluation. In addition, neither the budget allocation or approval is within the researcher’s responsibility. The researcher has held the position of nurse educator of the Surgical Department for about 10 years. Consequently, the researcher has gained knowledge and experience about the self-development of nurses. The researcher was therefore in a unique situation to understand more clearly what and how learning occurred in nurses in clinical practice.
When undertaking participant observation, the researcher recorded the important data of social phenomenon in field notes. The following social phenomenon types guided the researcher’s observation and writing of field notes (Lofland, 1971; Chantavanich, 2000, pp. 134-138):
1. Actions were defined as incidents, situations or behaviors that happened within a period of time, but did not continue for a long period of time.
2. Activities were defined as incidents, situations or behaviors that continually happened and related to some people or some groups.
3. Meaning was defined as what a person explained, communicated or interpreted about their actions or activities, where meaning involved vision, belief, definition, and culture.
4. Relationships which defined the links among the many people in the hospital were viewed as either harmonious or conflicting. Specifically, the kind of relationship nurses had with their colleagues and head of the ward was noted.
5. Participation in activities was defined as how well a person became involved with and joined in an activity or how the participant adjusted to and coped with a situation or incident that happened. In particular, it was noted how much and how often the nurses participated in activities of the ward.
6. The setting was defined as the working conditions and environment inside the ward that was routine and happened each day.
The researcher used these categories as a framework for writing field notes during data collection and later on for analysing these data.
The researcher conducted the participant observation of the first participant of the first ward for a period of one week from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the beginning of August 2003. All the incidents, situations, behaviors, and statements of people and participants in the ward, and the working conditions and environment inside the ward were recorded in field notes. Later these data were screened and the data that related to self-directed learning of nurses were then coded in the memos of the field notes. The field notes were submitted to the principal supervisor for comments that were later used to further develop the method of conducting participant observation in other wards. The researcher conducted the participant observation in the wards with each participant of each ward until all seven participants of all seven wards had been observed using the same method.
To compile the field notes the researcher jotted down brief, important data that had been observed so that information would not be lost through forgetfulness. The data were recorded later in detail. (See an example of field notes for the first ward observed shown in Appendix E.) This helped the researcher arrange the descriptions for data analysis, make further plans, and draw conclusions during each period of time.
3.10.3 The second semi-structured interview
The second interview was conducted after the participant observation was completed. In February 2004, the second interview was conducted using semi-structured questions. The researcher used selected questions from the first interview that would give additional details or clarify the initial responses of each participant. Four questions were used to interview the nurses a second time (see Appendix C). Three questions were used in the second interview of the nurse educators (see Appendix D).