Masters - Phenomenological Interviews

Data collecting for this project was done solely through phenomenological interviews which each lasted approximately 60-90 minutes each. These interviews will be formed around one stand-alone open-ended question, namely: What is your lived experience of caring for women with pseudocyesis? This open-ended style of questioning is to facilitate the interviewee to express their thoughts and experiences of pseudocyesis within an unbiased atmosphere and not being directed towards certain conclusions by the interviewer (Lavrakas 2008). This unbiased atmosphere is crucial in learning of the lived experienced of the nurses involved in the research, so as to avoid learning of the interpreted experience instead. The open nature of the questioning style therefore is designed to reveal the subjective experience of the participants (Englander 2012). The participants for these interviews have been self-identified and therefore were open to approach by myself. These participants are individuals that I, as the researcher, have had no prior relationship with, professional or otherwise. The research relationship that the participant and I form has been respected in the ways set out in the Ethical Framework section of the Research Proposal for this dissertation. Once a participant had been successfully approached I, as the researcher, have then gained their written consent. The participants were given seventy two hours (three days) from the point of first contact to decide whether or not they wanted to take part in the research. Those participants that completed the research were then followed up by myself a fortnight later via whichever contact information they indicated in the Consent Form that they are happy for me to use (i.e. phone or e-mail) to clarify any outstanding points that came out in the interview.