Introduction
Transitional nursing strategies are implemented in different medical areas to ensure that patients’ transition from one unit to another or from a hospital to their home is safe, effective, and does not adversely influence their wellbeing and health. However, patients with cancer can have different needs and demands compared to other patients. Therefore, a set of rules and strategies needs to be developed that can positively influence the transition of patients with cancer and cancer survivors.
Step One
The first step of the implementation phase includes the selection of medical facilities that will provide the researcher with the contacts of potential participants of the study. Several local hospitals will be selected; these medical facilities must treat cancer patients and have nursing professionals who work with cancer patients, because, otherwise, they will not fit into the desired sample size.
When the hospitals are selected, nursing professionals who work with cancer patients from these facilities will be randomly selected using a mathematical software program designed specifically for random selection or the lottery method. To obtain information about nursing professionals, the author will need to communicate with the hospital authorities to have their written consent. After the potential participants are contacted by the hospital authorities and instructed about the research, the author will receive contact numbers or E-Mails of the nursing professionals.
The author will contact all nursing professionals that agreed to provide their contact information to explain the purpose of the research, provide the author’s biography, and (if needed) sample of previous works.
Step Two
To ensure that the study’s possible biases are reduced, a third-party consultant will be engaged to evaluate the results of the conducted interviews. The third-party consultant will be from another hospital not included in the research, and with experience in nursing research.
Those participants who will agree to take part in the study are to be provided with further information about the research (the type of interviews, topic, and approximate duration). Those nurses who will refuse to take part in the study will be asked to explain their refusal but only if they are willing to answer this question.
After that, cancer patients from the same hospitals will be contacted using the same approach as with the nursing professionals. Ethical approval will be obtained from the selected medical facilities and the research institute (Chambers et al., 2012). Patients with cancer will also be asked to provide written consent.
After that, interviews for the research will be developed by the research’s purposes. Different interview questions will be prepared for nursing professionals and patients, and the participants will be contacted to determine the desired time of the day for the interviews. All interview questions will be printed and have additional copies in case if any participants will need it. Chancellery needed to write down the interview questions will be prepared by the author. The author also aims to provide a recording device to record the interviews. If possible, video recording will be provided as well (only after the participants will give their consent to be filmed during the interview). Those participants who will not agree to be filmed will be interviewed without video recording.
Time Frame
It should be noted that both the duration of interviews and the fact that the interview is being recorded can influence participants’ answers and behavior (Al-Yateem, 2012). The approximate time frame for the project and interviews will be presented in the table below.
It should be remembered that interviews are often costly and time-consuming; moreover, some of the participants might not have the chance to conduct the whole interview, which can also negatively influence the study’s outcomes (Parahoo, 2014).
The researcher aims to ask questions carefully and appropriately, note data that the participants will provide, and be actively engaged in the conversation (Doody & Noonan, 2013).
Budget
Although this study is not evaluated as a costly one, some of its parts can require an additional financial contribution. For example, the third-party consultant might ask for remuneration because they will have to work on the research, evaluate, and critically review it to ensure that the amount of possible bias can be reduced. Moreover, it will be impossible to conduct interviews with nursing professionals during their work; that is why the author expects that the nurses will agree to carry out interviews in their free time. However, it would be reasonable to assume that some of the participants will inquire whether these interviews will be paid for or not (by the hospital authorities or by the author).
Resources and Tools
Standardized open-ended interviews are often used in qualitative studies to evaluate a problem or obtain a particular pattern needed for the research (Malterud, 2012). The problem of open-ended interviews is that they contain the same set of questions for every participant, which is inapplicable for this study because there will be two groups of interviewees: nurses and patients. Therefore, the developed interviews will include different questions. Interview questions for nurses will address transitional nursing strategies in oncology and their efficiency, while questions for patients will focus on their assessment of the transition periods they have experienced recently. Moreover, the patients will be asked to assess nursing practices during these transitions. Tools needed for these interviews will include, as it was mentioned above, audio recording and video recording devices. The preparation stage is vital for successful outcomes because poorly managed preparation will result in a minimum benefit to the study. The author will need to choose a setting that will not be distracting to the participants and the interviewer (Malterud, 2012). Moreover, the environment should also be comfortable for the interviewees so that they are ready to answer sensitive or personal questions that can be linked to their condition or working strategies.
Another important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is the participants’ (unintentional) unwillingness to answer the researcher’s questions. They can discuss another problem that will be perceived as relevant by them. Therefore, the researcher will need to provide such questions that will keep the participants focused on the matter of the research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Otherwise, some of the answers may bring little data relevant to the study. Questions provided need to be clear and direct to ensure that there is no misunderstanding.
References
Al-Yateem, N. (2012). The effect of interview recording on quality of data obtained: A methodological reflection. Nurse Researcher, 19(4), 31-35.
Chambers, S. K., Girgis, A., Occhipinti, S., Hutchison, S., Turner, J., Morris, B., & Dunn, J. (2012). Psychological distress and unmet supportive care needs in cancer patients and carers who contact cancer helplines. European Journal of Cancer Care, 21(2), 213-223.
Doody, O., & Noonan, M. (2013). Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data. Nurse Researcher, 20(5), 28-32.
Malterud, K. (2012). Systematic text condensation: A strategy for qualitative analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 40(8), 795-805.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Parahoo, K. (2014). Nursing research: Principles, process and issues. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.