Trustworthiness of qualitative data

“Trustworthiness has been further divided into credibility, which corresponds roughly with the positivist concept of internal validity, dependability, which relates more to reliability, transferability, which is a form of external validity and confirmability, which uses largely an issue of presentation ” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, as cited in Rolfe, 2006, p. 305).

The researcher employed the following strategies to ensure trustworthiness and credibility:  Size of the sample – Sample size is determined by the best possible number

required to facilitate valid inferences to be made regarding the population. A larger sample size will reduce the probability of a random sampling error (Marshall, 1996). The researcher included the whole population in the sample and therefore all the participants were interviewed, which resulted in a large amount of information and rich themes and subsequent generalisability of the research findings to the population.

 Response rate − A high response rate indicates very credible data collected, because (a) the participants show great interest in the study and (b) In contrast to a group with a low response rate, the data could be regarded as more reliable (Im & Chee, 2006). In this study a response rate of 90.32% was achieved. A large number of themes were identified, these themes were normally mentioned more than once and this provided further verification.

 Confirmability – Through triangulation the researcher compared qualitative and quantitative data to verify findings. A literature review was done and employed to enhance the truth value (credibility) of the study.

 Transferability – Interviews were transcribed verbatim and relevant quotes were included in the results. A clear description of the methodology was also provided.

 Dependability – The research methodology, the transcription of interviews and analysis were described and relevant quotes were provided.

54 3.10 Ethical considerations

The researcher implemented the following strategies to ensure an ethical approach:

 Registered the research with the committee for human research at the University of Stellenbosch (Project number: N07/10/237).

 Obtained written permission for access to information from Life Rehabilitation Units as well as permission to perform the study (See Appendix 6).

 Obtained written informed consent (See Appendices 7 and 8) from the participants in the study. The aim and objectives of the study were explained to the participants as well as what their participation will involve.

 The participation in the research was voluntary.

 Confidentiality of participants was ensured. This issue was addressed in the informed consent document which was co-signed by the participants and the researcher. Through this document the researcher undertook to guarantee confidentiality at all times and that the participants’ identities would not be disclosed to anybody at any time (See Appendices 7 and 8).

 Participants were free to withdraw from the research at any time.

 Informed consent was obtained from all the participants that a digital recorder could be used during the interviews.

 The psychologist, Claudia da Roche, who was appointed to assist with the MBI, signed a document in order to ensure that she would not disclose any information and that all information will be treated confidentially (See appendix 9). The transcriber also signed a confidentiality statement for the same reason (See Appendix 10).

 The researcher provided the participants found to suffer from burnout or are at high risk to develop burnout with the iCas toll free number through which they could access the services of a psychologist without any cost or encourage them to contact a private psychologist of their choice.

 The researcher will make the findings of the research available to Life: Rehabilitation and the participants.

 The researcher will act on the findings of the research and motivate for action.  Tapes and data will be stored securely by the researcher at the researcher’s

home. The tapes and data will be destroyed once the research project has been finalised.

55  Only the researcher had access to the participants’ records.

 Results will be published in relevant scientific journals.

 The ethical guidelines and principles of the international Declaration of Helsinki, South African Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice and Medical Research Council’s Ethical Guidelines for Research were taken into consideration when the study was conducted.

3.11 Summary

The researcher aimed to determine the prevalence of burnout among therapy staff employed at Life Rehabilitation Units, the contributing factors to burnout in this environment and how the study population currently manage burnout. In order to achieve this, the researcher identified nine study objectives. The researcher made use of a descriptive mixed method study design. The study setting consisted of six of the seven Life Rehabilitation Units. The study population consisted of the therapists, therapy assistants and their managers employed by Life Rehabilitation Units. In terms of instrumentation the researcher made use of a demographic data coding sheet to gather demographic data, the MBI to measure the prevalence of burnout and interview schedules for both the managers and the therapy staff to establish their perceptions of burnout and its contributing factors in the organisation and individual. The analysis of the quantitative data was completed by statistical calculations according to instructions provided by the MBI manual. The qualitative data was analysed according to the inductive method in which the researcher allowed themes to emerge and then organised information according to these themes. The researcher endeavoured to be as ethical as possible and to ensure trustworthiness of the data.

56 CHAPTER 4

QUANTITATIVE RESULTS