So the next step is Step 9 which is data collection instruments. And again,
data collection instruments or tools are very much dictated by the methodological approach
that you'll choose. It's inappropriate to use quantitative tools within qualitative research
and vice-versa, so I took a qualitative approach for my research using ethnographic methodology.
So I needed to make sure that the tools that I was using for data collection were appropriate
for an ethnographic approach. And I actually used three different tools for data collection.
Semi-structured interviews, observation and documentary analysis. So with semi-structured
interviews I took consent from participants prior to the interview, and I used interviews to try and
gain an individual perspective of revalidation operationalisation, which is what the focus of
my research was within that particular unit and also personal perceptions of the impact
of regulation on maternity care provision. So those interviews were recorded and transcribed,
and it was a transcriptions that I have been obviously used for data analysis. In
terms of observation, I used observation to observe participants in their normal
working environment - so to try and understand a day in the life of doctors and midwives. And
I also used it as a way of observing to see the way that people acted and what they did,
and to try and use that as a way to compare to see if what they say they did was congruent with
what they actually did in practice, so trying to compare the interviews with observation. One thing
that you do need to consider with interviews and observation in particular because they're front
facing with the participants is, considering your impact upon them as a researcher, in the fact of
particularly if you're known to those people that you're interviewing and observing like I was,
you do really need to be quite reflexive about acknowledging the impact that you can have on
the data that you collect because they may act differently because you're there - so
the Hawthorne effect - they may act differently and say different things because you're known
to them. The other thing to consider is if you are known to them, then you need to factor in how that
will impact upon the way that then you interpret the data. So not only the impact that you have on
the people that you're interviewing or observing, but how then you interpret and analyse that data
once you've collected it. So the third tool was documentary analysis, and I looked at local and
national policy documents for revalidation and that was for me to be able to compare local
action with national guidance, and also looked at local revalidation paperwork. So you can see I use
three different tools there and that allowed what we call triangulation of data collection tools,
so it helps with increasing the trustworthiness of the data that you're collecting if you can use
more than one data collection tool. So things to remember then in terms of data collection
tools. The tools must be appropriate for the methodological approach that you're using,
and for all the steps that I've talked about in terms of thinking about the appropriateness - you
being able to justify the appropriateness is what makes your research proposal more robust and when
you actually think about critically appraising research, these are the things that you're looking
for - the congruence between the different steps of the research process. Multiple data
collection tools can increase data trustworthiness because you're able to compare what you've found,
and also hopefully corroborate some of the evidence that you've got. And you certainly
need to be reflective and consider your role as a researcher on the participants,
and the knowledge that you've got and how you use that to interpret your data, because this
is very significant also in terms of considering data processing analysis which is the next step.