So my research was qualitative in nature. My methodological approach was ethnography,
and the aim of my research was to look at the operationalisation of revalidation within
one NHS trust focusing on how revalidation was operationalised within the organisation and how
that compared with national guidance. Another aim was to particularly look at the impact of
revalidation operationalisation on maternity care. Okay so this is step 8 and this focuses on
sampling and your sampling strategy. So this can be quite difficult and you do need to communicate
with a gatekeeper in relation to gaining access and speaking to the people that you need to speak
to. So that would usually be someone like a head of midwifery if you wanted to go into maternity
department. To be able to gain access you also need to have approval through from the research
and development department of the organisation you want to gain access to, and through getting
approval from them, they will give you a letter of access which means that you are legally able
to be in the organisation for the purposes of research. So you need to be very organised in
approaching both the gatekeeper and the research development department about gaining access to
make sure that this access isn't refused. So for my research I took an opportunistic approach,
because I was going back to the organisation that I previously worked at as a band 7 Midwife. So on
leaving the role to come and do a PhD, the head of midwifery was quite open to me going back to
the organisation to do the research that I wanted to do, because she was quite interested also. So
that did help, but obviously that doesn't always happen so you do need to make sure
that by arranging for you to go to where you want to go, that you've got good relationships
and that you can gain that access that you need to gain. So then you're thinking about who you
want to actually sample. Depending upon what the aim of your research is will depend upon whether
they are inclusion and exclusion criteria for who you want to sample. So I wanted to sample
doctors and midwives with varying levels of experience within the organisation,
so that would be able to give me a good variation of what I was wanting to find out in relation to
my research aim. So obviously anybody that wasn't employed within the organisation and
wasn't a doctor or Midwife that was practicing was obviously excluded. So your inclusion and
exclusion criteria will very much be determined by the aim of your research and who you actually
want to talk to. So this may be more complex for things that you're trying to think about,
but in terms of setting inclusion and exclusion criteria it is something that's very important to
make sure that you sample the right people. So in terms of method of recruitment - again this
will vary depending upon where you want to do your research and who you wish to sample. So I
used recruitment posters advertising the research that were put up in all staff areas, so the staff
were aware of the research that I was actually going to do. And the biggest thing to consider
in terms of recruitment is that being given access to the organisation doesn't necessarily mean that
you're automatically granted access to the people that you want to research. Because being granted
access to going to a maternity unit, but access has been granted through the gatekeeper the
head of midwifery, and the research and development department. The individuals
that are working there on a daily basis haven't necessarily consented at that point to take part,
so that is something that you do need to consider in terms of your recruitment - making sure that
you've advertised the research so that they're aware of what's going on and that they can
actively get involved. So the next step was that I - as well as the posters - I actually emailed
all eligible staff members and I did this again through the gatekeeper. The head of midwifery
was able to send out the email advertising the research with the participant information she
attached to the email on my behalf, because ethically I wasn't able to have access to
all of the email addresses of the staff members to be able to email the eligible people myself.
So obviously thinking about ethics is really important. So I asked everybody that was eligible
to self-select. So they I asked them to come to me there in person whilst I was there on the unit,
or to email me to let me know that they wanted to take part. Now there was two elements of my
research it was observational and also I did interviews, because I took an ethnographic
approach in terms of methodology and used both of those data collection tools that I'll talk
a little bit more about at the next step. But they were asked to opt out of the observational
part of the research if they didn't want to be involved in that, and they were asked to again
self select if they wish to be interviewed. And I took written consent for anybody that wanted
to get involved in an interview. So as you can see with all of that, ethics is really important
and you need to bear ethics in mind when you're recruiting and selecting your participants. So
in terms of sampling methods and numbers. Again, this is dictated by the aim of the research. And
I didn't necessarily set a number of participants that I wanted to recruit because I knew that that
would be dictated by my data analysis, which again I'll come to it in a further step. So I
took a purposive sampling approach to sampling my participants because I wanted midwives,
I wanted doctors, and I also needed them to have varying levels of grades and experience. So I was
happy to purposively choose from the people that self selected that would give me a variation - an
equal number of doctors and midwives with that range of experience. So I didn't set a
number - and setting a number for participants the qualitative research is quite contentious anyway
as I'm sure you've been able to see within the literature. So in terms of the number I was aiming
for data saturation, again which was due to would be determined by data analysis which I'll come on
to. So I had 38 doctors and midwives in total that self selected to participate, and actually
luckily within those 38 I managed to achieve data saturation, so I was able to utilise all of the
people that self selected and I didn't need to let anybody down essentially, everybody that
self selected was able to participate. So in terms of sampling then, the things you need to remember;
gaining access can be quite difficult - you need to factor time into that and make sure that you're
very organised in the way that you approach the people that you need to approach. The sampling
method must be congruent with the research aim and methodology - so you must ensure that
whatever strategy you use is conversant with your overall aim and your methodological approach. And
as I've highlighted, there are quite a few ethical issues that you really do need to consider when
you are sampling participants and that must come through within your research proposal.