Collecting data using a semi-structured interview:

Collecting data using a semi-structured interview: a discussion paper

This paper discusses some of the measures used by a research team to overcome threats to validity and reliability of a semi-stmctured interview exploring the perceptions and needs of continuing professional education among nurses in practice in two district health authorities.

Every research project consists of several phases, begins with the selection of a topic to study and ends with the dissemination of the research findings. Each step within this research process has the potential to influence the research output and it is important that all researchers attempt ‘to avoid as much error as possible during all phases of the research in order to increase the credibility of the results’ (Brink 1989). In order to attain credibility, the research process must be both valid and reliable which, as Brink has argued, is a major challenge when a project is based upon a semi-structured interview. This challenge provides the focus for the discussion below, which highlights the attempts
made by a research team to address the issues of validity and reliability in a project based upon a semi-structured interview method used on one occasion with each nurse respondent.

Collecting data using a semi-structured interview: a discussion paper

Full Text – Louisebarriball1994