Research question(s) and/or hypotheses (100 words): Briefly describe your research question(s), hypotheses or explorations

Topic:  An exploration of the experiences of internationally educated registered nurses during their first years transitioning to practice as an RN in Australia.

Question: What are the experiences of internationally educated nurses during their first years transitioning to practice as a Registered Nurse in Australia?

Parameters:

Nursing education completed overseas and are currently registered nurses that are working in Australia?

Registered Nurses that have worked for a min of 1 year overseas in their home country and have worked a minimum of 1 year as a Registered Nurse in Australia.

Registered with the NMBA currently as a nurse

No age inclusion.

No upper limit of amount of years working in each country. 

Excluded: International Nurses that have had to redo/ complete their qualifications in Australia. 

Qualitative Descriptive 

Phenomenology- lived experience

Phenomenology exploration of participants’ behaviour and focuses on understanding how human beings experience their world. It gives researchers the opportunity to put themselves in another person’s shoes and to understand the subjective experiences of participants. 

Dataset(s) to be used (250 words): The first step in a data analysis plan is to describe the data collected in the study. What data will you collect? 

How will you summarise your study data (e.g. how you will present the data, what descriptive statistics will you use, what is your data coding strategy?) 

Qualitative research can help researchers to access the thoughts and feelings of research participants, which can enable development of an understanding of the meaning that people ascribe to their experiences. Qualitative methods can help researchers to understand how and why such behaviours take place. 

There are a variety of study methodologies and different ways of recording each face-to-face interviews, such as taking notes, audio-recording, or video recording. The data will arise from between 8 to 12 one-to-one, face to face interviews. The interviews will consist of a series of semi structured questions to assist with answering the research question. Semi structured interview questions provide………….

This process will involve the generation of large amounts of data. (It can take an experienced researcher/transcriber 8 hours to transcribe one 45-minute audio-recorded interview, a process that will generate 20–30 pages of written dialogue).

Many researchers maintain “field notes” to complement the audio-taped interviews. These field notes will provide me with the ability to maintain and comment upon contexts, impressions, behaviours, environmental contexts, and nonverbal cues that may not be adequately captured through the audio-recording.  these notes will be handwritten in a notebook during or shortly after the interview takes place. Field notes can provide important context to the interpretation of audio-taped data and may assist by reminding the researcher of situational factors that may be important during data analysis. (These notes will not be formal, but I will have maintained them in a secure manner like audio tapes and transcripts, since they will contain sensitive information relevant to the research).

Since I will be audio-recording, the recordings must be transcribed verbatim before data analysis can begin. The data will be the verbatim transcripts from the completed interviews. 

Potential analysis techniques or models (250 words): Describe the analysis techniques or modelling with your variables and any theoretical significance (e.g., ANOVA, Grounded Theory analysis, Regression analysis)

I will be using Interpretative Phenomenology as my methodology, so need to use analysis that is suitable for this  

Thematic Analysis -using Braun and Clarke or Burnard Thematic Approach.

There are two fundamental approaches to analysing qualitative data (although each can be handled in a variety of different ways): the deductive approach and the inductive approach. Deductive approaches involve using a structure or predetermined framework to analyse data. Essentially, the researcher imposes their own structure or theories on the data and then uses these to analyse the interview transcripts. 

the inductive approach involves analysing data with little or no predetermined theory, structure or framework and uses the actual data itself to derive the structure of analysis. This approach is comprehensive and therefore time-consuming and is most suitable where little or nothing is known about the study phenomenon. Inductive analysis is the most common approach used to analyse qualitative data

Qualitative researchers should also utilise a process of ‘constant comparison’ when analysing data. This essentially involves reading and re-reading data to search for and identify emerging themes in the constant search for understanding and the meaning of the data.

the process of thematic content analysis is often very similar in all types of qualitative research, in that the process involves analysing transcripts, identifying themes within those data and gathering together examples of those themes from the text.

Rationale of using the techniques or models (100 words): Why are these analysis techniques warranted in your study? What are the alternatives?

Discuss and describe why you are using this vs another method. 

Why is this the best one for the research question/study.

Phenomenology- lived experience

Phenomenology exploration of participants’ behaviour and focuses on understanding how human beings experience their world. It gives researchers the opportunity to put themselves in another person’s shoes and to understand the subjective experiences of participants. 

Software to be used (50 words): What software do you plan on using for your analysis?

To analyse the findings, the method of analysis above involves managing the data ‘by hand’. However, there are several computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software packages available that can be used to manage and help in the analysis of qualitative data. Common programmes include ….. and NVivo. It should be noted, however, that such programs do not ‘analyse’ the data – that is the task of the researcher – they simply manage the data and make handling of them easier.

For example, computer packages can help to manage, sort and organise large volumes of qualitative data, store, annotate and retrieve text, locate words, phrases and segments of data, prepare diagrams and extract quotes. However, whilst computer programmes can facilitate data analysis, making the process easier and, arguably, more flexible, accurate and comprehensive, they do not confirm or deny the scientific value or quality of qualitative research, as they are merely instruments, as good or as bad as the researcher using them.

•

o The word count (750 words) is flexible and is provided as a guide only – you will not be penalised for going over the word count if needed.

Reference

Colorafi, K. J., & Evans, B. (2016). Qualitative Descriptive Methods in Health Science Research. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 9(4), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1937586715614171