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WOUND CARE
not provide direct patient care”. The interviews were arranged via email and telephone. The
sequential design of the project and the semi-structured telephone interview data helped to
supplement the small quantitative data by providing more in-depth perspectives.
Data collection (Phase III). The semi-structured telephone interviews with four
consenting participants served to collect supplementary data regarding the concepts ‘clinical
decision-making’ and ‘inter-professional’ practice. Data were collected over a period of four
weeks. The interviews were arranged via telephone and e-mail. Each interview lasted 20 to 30
minutes. For “focused or semi-structured interviews, researchers prepare a written topic guide”
in advance (Polit & Beck, 2012, p. 537). See Appendix E: Interview guide. The questions are
arranged in logical sequence, from general to specific with suggestions for prompts “to elicit
more detailed information” (Polit & Beck, p. 537). The open-ended questions and prompts are
geared to deeper description of the context of nursing practice environment in the specific area of
‘clinical decision-making’ and ‘inter-professional practice’ in the area of radiation oncology
wound management. The list of interview questions with prompts that had been initially
developed was revised after the first two semi-structured interviews and these are listed in
Appendix E. The revision included two additional prompts that were helpful in understanding
the context of nursing practice environment in the area of wound management in radiation
oncology.
The interviews were recorded using a digital recording device and transcribed verbatim
by this writer with the use of voice recognition software. Qualitative researchers need to devote
time and energy in analyzing and documenting their own presuppositions, biases and ongoing
emotions (Polit & Beck, 2012). After each interview, reflexive field notes were written to
summarize the interview.
