Why work in perioperative nursing? Baby boomers and generation Xers tell all

AORN Journal,  Oct, 2007  by Julia A. Thompson

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After each interview, I also recorded field notes. Field notes described my unstructured observations made in the field. (27) I wrote these field notes on paper or tape-recorded them as soon as possible after the interview. These notes included a description of the setting and the participant; the emotional tone of the interview; any particular difficulties, methodological or personal, that I encountered; insights and reflections; and my own feelings during and about the experience. The descriptive information I recorded allowed me to recall the observations during subsequent data analysis. (27)

In qualitative research, the concepts of reliability and validity are represented by the term trustworthiness. Polit and Hungler (19) define trustworthiness as a term used in the evaluation of qualitative data and assessed using the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability as outlined by Lincoln and Guba. (28)

Credibility is concerned with truth value or accuracy of a study's findings. (19) Qualitative findings are considered credible when descriptions or interpretations are so faithful that participants recognize their experiences from the researcher's description? (28) I used triangulation (ie, the process of involving corroborating evidence from different sources to shed light on a theme or perspective) and consultation with members of my doctoral dissertation committee, one of whom is an expert in qualitative research, to determine the credibility of this study and to confirm freedom from bias. (21,29) I used additional procedures in the study, including purposive sampling and continuing data collection until saturation had been achieved, to enhance credibility.

Transferability is the criterion that is used to determine whether a study's findings can be applied in other contexts or settings or with other groups. (19) One means of establishing transferability is to use triangulation. (21) I therefore used the information obtained from the WES to check for similarities identified in the interviews.

Dependability refers to the stability of data over time and under various conditions. (19) Auditability is the criterion of merit related to the dependability of qualitative findings? (25) A study is considered auditable when another researcher can follow the qualitative researcher's decision trail and arrive at comparable conclusions given the researcher's data, perspective, and situation. (28) The qualitative research report provided evidence of auditability.

Confirmability or neutrality refers to freedom from bias in the research procedure and results. (19) One technique that I used in this study to assist in the removal of interviewer bias was the process of bracketing, which refers to the conscious effort of the researcher to identify personal theoretical biases and to place those biases aside. (19,21,28) To further ensure confirmability, an independent nurse researcher who is skilled in interpretative research reviewed my interpretation and evaluated whether the themes seemed appropriate and whether sufficient data were present to represent the themes.