The Lived Experience of Nurses Working in Cardiology Services with Online Continuing Professional Programs in Advancing their Specialized Clinical Practice: Phenomenology Study Methodology

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Introduction: Nurses should be committed to undertake continuing professional development (CPD) courses to advance nursing practice and guarantee lifelong learning. Online CPD programs may allow nurses to fulfil the demand for specialty competency. Aim: This study focuses on utilising online (CPD) activities to develop cardiac nurses’ ability to perform advanced clinical skills. Method: The study was conducted in one of the largest accredited teaching hospitals in South Australia. The department is staffed by a specialised multi-professional team, some of whom have completed specialised cardiac post-graduation diploma courses in order to meet the complex needs of cardiac patients. To keep the team abreast of the latest developments in practice, the in-service education department at local study setting runs several CPD programs for the cardiology department via varied learning modes, such as online CPD programs, classroom learning and bedside-based learning. The nursing team maintains advanced clinical skills through online CPD, orientation programs, and in-service classroom-based courses. Regarding online CPD courses, electrocardiography interpretation and underwater sealing draining management courses are mandatory courses which all registered nurses must complete while working in medical or surgical cardiac wards. Results: The interview process was conducted in five stages: 1. Determining the type of the interview where in such types of qualitative studies the researcher should focus on the fundamental question of the phenomenological inquiry throughout the unstructured, in-depth interview process. 2. Making initial contact where the researcher established a rapport with the participant and prepared them mentally by giving them the participant information sheet. 3. Context of the interview where interviews be conducted in a quiet room in the School of Nursing in order to maintain participant privacy and anonymity, participants requested to conduct the interviews in their work setting. Nonetheless, the researcher ensured that participant privacy and anonymity was upheld. 4. Selecting the lived experience where Each participant was interviewed once. Interview duration was 15 to 30 minutes. The interviews started with a grand tour question. Grand tour questions are very broad questions asked by the interviewer at the early stage of an interview to obtain a description of the event or experience. 5. All interviews were concluded by thanking the participant and offering them the choice to have a copy of their interview transcript to verify what they had said. The researcher wrote an interview summary after listening to the interviews on the same day. The summary was prepared to help the researcher evaluate the amount of data gathered and identify whether the point of data saturation was reached. In addition, writing the summary helped the researcher reflect on the interview and gain an understanding of the participant experience Conclusion This study explained the process of data collection, describing the setting, nature of participants and process of data collection using phenomenological interview. As the human experience is complex, gathering in-depth data should be systematic to ensure that the researcher has obtained the most sufficient data to explore the essence of the experience.