As part of a 3-phase study suing both quantitative and qualitative methods, quantitative data was collected and analysed on a sample of the hospital to report what the hospital was doing to prevent hospital-acquired infections including UTI. Details of this study are explained further within this research. The quantitative phase of the research involved a survey sent to a number of infection control nurses the hospital. During the second and third phases of the research the focus of the article, the research aimed to understand why the hospital was applying or not applying certain practices, by rigorously collecting and analysing detailed qualitative data. In the second phase of the study, a telephone interview with senior nurses was conducted. To select these nurses, the research used “purposeful” sampling, the aim of which was to sample cases for in-depth analysis that could help the researcher understand the problem under study, rather than “representative” sampling, the aim of which leads to the generalisation of samples. Therefore, the researcher intentionally included staff that, based on their responses to the phase 1 survey, used UTI preventive practices, so that something could emerge about the use of these practices, and contrasted the nurses with the more typical nurses that do not. Because the research was interested in looking at both student nurses and qualified nurses, it first first stratified by size (wards with fewer than 15 nurses vs wards …show more content…
Furthermore, a paradigm has been defined as ‘the net that contains the researcher’s epistemological, ontological and methodological premises’ according to (Guba (1990) cited in (Denzin & Lincoln 2008: p26). Paradigms impact on our views, an important consideration during research as beliefs and perceptions can hinder research design, data collection and analysis. The specific area of infection prevention and control to be researched, the aim and objectives and the epistemological stance of the researcher all influence paradigmatic choices. This paradigm is associated with qualitative & quantitative research which was the approach taken within the research and is a position which relies heavily on methods such as interviewing, promoting dialogue between researcher and participant in order to construct reality and meanings from the research process. The researcher’s values were therefore inherent in all phases of the research process. The researcher could not be separated from that which was being researched as the researcher had an effect on data collection and analysis which could be considered to be biases that had to be acknowledged. In the research under discussion, the position of researcher as a nursing undergraduate student, brought with it specific biases based on previous experience in clinical