Ethical issues

Ethical approval was obtained from the Istanbul University – Cerrahpaşa Social and
Humanities Ethics Committee (08.05.2020-60247). Permission was also granted by the
Council for Scientific Research Studies of the Directorate General of Health Services
affiliated to the Ministry of Health, Republic of Turkey. At the beginning of the online
meetings, the participants were informed of the provisions of the 1995 Declaration of
Helsinki (as revised in Brazil, 2013), and their written and verbal consents were obtained.
When the participants’ information was being collected and stored, the researchers paid close
attention to the principle of confidentiality. Voice recordings, transcripts and interview notes
were stored on a password-protected computer, and all obtained data will be destroyed 5
years after the completion of the research and publication procedures.

Data analysis

The voice recordings obtained from the interviews were converted into writing by E.C.
Afterwards, the consistency between the recordings and the transcripts was checked by
F.Y.K. Data were coded by all four researchers (O.K., E.C., O.S.A. and F.Y.K.). Themes
were then obtained from the data. The MAXQDA 20.0 statistics software package and
Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenological analysis steps were used for data analysis (Colaizzi,
1978). The following steps were implemented in this process:

1. Transcripts were read several times, and short notes were taken to understand the meanings
attributed to a phenomenon and the emotions experienced.

2. Important expressions directly related to a phenomenon were selected.

3. These important expressions were examined, and expressions with common meanings
were formulated.

4. The formulated meanings were grouped into categories, themes and subthemes.

5. The obtained results were combined with rich, comprehensive life experiences.

6. The basic conceptual structure of the phenomenon in question was defined.

7. The results were confirmed through another meeting with the participants in which their
experiences were compared with the results obtained.

Trustworthiness

The trustworthiness of this study was realised based on the following four criteria: credibility,
transferability, dependability and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Credibility was
achieved by obtaining participant approval, describing the studied phenomenon in detail,
using the MAXQDA 20.0 software package to analyse the data, comparing the results with
the findings of previous research, conducting researcher meetings at short intervals to discuss
the research process and advantageously implementing the intertextual qualifications and
experiences of the researchers. To ensure transferability, the research sample, environment
and process were presented clearly. Confirmability was ensured by using more than one data
collection method, considering each researcher’s reflective comments and having each
researcher code the data individually.