SECOND-YEAR NURSING STUDENTS LIVED EXPERIENCE OF CARING

FOR  LABOR PATIENTS: A QUALITATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL

APPROACH

A Thesis proposal Presented to the Faculty of the

Nursing Program of Davao Doctors College, Inc.
Davao City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Maramara, Darlene Ross A., Manlangit, Czarah Jane B.,

Manloza, Chirstine Mae B., Moreno, Princess Dyan M.,
Lapating, Alyssa Jane E., Pechon, Mary Lloyd T.,
Lurcha, Ella Mae P., Morala, Marielle B.

August, 2020
 DAVAO DOCTORS COLLEGE, INC.
GEN. MALVAR ST. DVAO CITY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN NURSING

Chapter II

Research design

In this study, the researchers decided it was appropriate to use a

qualitative research design using a phenomenological approach. As
researchers planned to conduct the study in real-life settings and held an
interest in uncovering and understanding the actual lived experiences of the
nursing students and to explore, describe, and interpret the experiences of
nursing students during their exposures to clinical practice.

A phenomenology is an approach to qualitative research that focuses on

the lived experience within a particular group. Typically, interviews are
conducted with a group of individuals who have first-hand knowledge of an
event, situation, or experience.  This approach allows for rich and deep
information that could be obtained from the phenomenon of learning
experiences from the participants’ student nurses’ frame of reference which
could provide much-need

On the other hand, qualitative research using a phenomenological

approach was selected as the most suitable approach for this study because
it emphasizes trust, transparency, verifiability, and flexibility, and it is a good
method to develop insight and interpretation in the field of nursing exposures.

Research Participants

The Davao Doctors College third-year nursing students will be the target
population. This is so, understanding that the group has been exposed to
different clinical settings particularly in the delivery room of hospitals and
lying-ins. Also, at this level, some nursing students had experienced watching
a live birth as part of training in the labor and delivery setting. The majority of
these students have experienced in caring for labor patients. They are
assigned for vital signs checking, monitoring contractions and fetal heart tone,
administer medications, and most importantly giving comfort measures and
teach the patient about their newborn and growing family. From these nursing
care, the students would therefore be able to reflect on their various
experiences during clinical practice and show a willingness to participate in
this study.

The study will be using a purposive sampling method. The participants are
selected based on their knowledge of the phenomenon to share their
knowledge and experiences with the researcher  (Brink, 1996). The purpose
of the study will be explained to the participants and informed consent will be
given.

The inclusion criteria are the following: must be a third-year student, has
the willingness to participate in the study, have been exposed to delivery room
settings (hospitals or lying ins), have experienced to be assigned as a handle
during DR rotation, and have been assigned to manage a labor patient.

Data Sources

The information needed for this analysis will be conducted primarily from
verbalization of  3rd year nursing students of Davao Doctors College about
their lived experiences in maternity exposure, in different hospitals or
maternity clinics they are assigned.  The participants who participate in this
study will be the primary data sources and related literature which will be
considered as secondary data sources for this study, it will serve as the
additional data to support the information that will be collected as the primary
data sources include some interview, focus group, document analysis,
observation for data information.

Data Collection

To obtain a better understanding of the lived experiences of nursing

students in dealing with maternity nursing exposures, individual interviews,
and focus group interviews will be used. Individual interviews with nursing
students will be conducted in a face-to-face or through online manner. Focus
group interviews with nursing students will also perform to achieve a deeper
understanding of this phenomenon.

The individual and group interviews began by asking the participants a

general and open question regarding their experiences with the maternity
nursing exposures.

 
 After gathering the data the researchers will interpret the information of
the participants that are included in the criteria. The result will be the basis of
future researchers to enhance the practice in maternity nursing exposure. 

Trustworthiness of the Study

Trustworthiness is a quality attained in a study when the data collected is

generally applicable and consistent. Data is relevant as readers can
familiarize themselves with the research and access whether the findings will
be applied to a specific setting or future study. The findings of this study will
direct students in nursing, clinical instructors, nursing programs, and school
administration in designing and developing a program that will help in
improving the quality of education services rendered to the nursing student
who lived experiences in maternity nursing exposures for a better education
outcome and student satisfaction.

Since qualitative research is not easy to assess its accuracy as

researchers do not use standardized tools with proven validity and reliability
metrics, it is important to address how qualitative researchers generate
accurate, transferable, confirm-able, and reliable results from the researcher’s
sample.

There are numerous potential methods and bases that can be used to
complement the trustworthiness of the results of the qualitative study.

Trustworthiness is all about establishing these five quality criteria of

qualitative research: 1. Credibility The confidence that can be placed in the
truth of the research findings represent plausible information drawn from the
participants' original data and is a correct interpretation of the participants'
original views. This study will be credible as the researchers will use
strategies that are suitable for the study. Researchers will use a
phenomenological approach in which they will focus on the student’s lived
experiences. 2. Transfer-ability. The degree to which the results of qualitative
research can be transferred to other contexts or settings with other
respondents. The researcher facilitates the transfer-ability judgment by a
potential user through the thick description. This study will be transferable in
the sense that the findings that will be gathered will be applicable to other
contexts like has similar situations, similar populations, and similar
phenomena. 3. Dependability The stability of findings over time. Dependability
involves participants' evaluation of the findings, interpretation, and
recommendations of the study such that are all supported by the data as
received from the participants of the study. This study will be dependable to
the extent that the other researchers could make use of the findings that the
researchers gathered. 4. Confirm-ability The degree to which the findings of
the researcher study could be confirmed by other researchers. Confirm-ability
is concerned with establishing that data and interpretations of the findings are
not figments of the inquirer's imagination, but derived from the data (Lincoln
and Guba, 1985). The study findings will be based on the lived experiences of
the students and that researcher's personal opinion will be set aside to divert
bias.

Role of the researcher

The role of the researcher in qualitative research is to encourage the

participants to share their lived experiences through unstructured
phenomenological interviews. This is not an easy task, as it involves asking
people to talk about things that somehow may be very personal to them. The
information receives from them through their in-depth descriptions of their
lived experiences was described to provide a “whole “ description of the
phenomenon under study. However the data are being collected, a primary
responsibility of the researcher is to safeguard participants and their data.

Reflexivity

This study is conducted to evaluate the nursing student who had exposure
in maternity, what are their experiences when taking care of the labored
patient in the maternity exposure. With the use of the phenomenological
approach, nursing students will able to explain and describe their experiences
in maternity exposure.

Phenomenology, one of the various types of qualitative research methods,

is used to discover and understand the meaning of human life experiences
through an analysis of the subjects' descriptions of situations. The experience
of conducting qualitative social science researches is a reiteration of our belief
that researchers should portray aspects of social phenomena in their entirety
and within the context of those experiencing them. We should give emphasis
to the unique, holistic, and dynamic aspects of human experience. We should
also continue to uphold the presence of multiple realities, which we elicit using
multiple ways of understanding. All these because we affirm the importance of
addressing the issue of rigor or trustworthiness of qualitative investigations.
We continue to look at the impact of our studies at all points during the
research process-including its impact on us. In the process, we learn about
ourselves as well as others (Participants, co-researchers, etc). We were
changed by many aspects of the research process: through what we learned
in the course of listening well, through participation, and our reflexivity. As
researchers, we emerged with new understandings, the origins of which were
not entirely clear and/or were confusing to us. Reflexivity is indeed a journey
of learning and unlearning. Research is a dialogue. Our uninhibited
discourses with the women and men of various ages and backgrounds
opened up so many possibilities for us to look beyond data and explore the
fringes rarely ventured into in research, and there, as social science
researchers, we found a well-spring of information, wisdom, and opportunities
for emancipatory research.

Data Analysis

Narrative Analysis was used to analyze the data which was gathered from
interviews to better understand a person’s experience or collective
experience. Allen (2017), the definition of narrative analysis as the category of
analytical frames in which researchers view stories that are told in the sense
of research and/or experienced in daily life. Researchers performing this form
of research are numerous, but equally important and significant —
interpretations and conclusions by concentrating on various elements.
Narrative analysis in research helps to disclose the connections in the length
of work; It incorporates the experiences in the way of learning as a foundation
along the period. The benefits in using a narrative analysis will allow the
researchers to try to understand the different aspects of a person's context
and study the personal and social facets of learning that involve independent
learning and the collaborative setting in which learners learn ( Cowger, T. &
Tritz, J., 2019). Using the ordinal data method in interpreting the data to
access the participant’s feelings.

Researchers in the phenomenological mode attempt to understand the

meaning of events and interactions with ordinary people, in particular,
situations (Bogdan, R. & Biklen, S., (2009). The researcher captured personal
experiences and drew rich descriptions and deep meanings from those
shared (Tiwaken et. al, 2015)

This analysis stage aims to understand more of the experiences reported

by the participants (Knudson, B. & Coyle, A., 2002) by the following methods:
reading and rereading descriptions, extracting significant statements,
formulating meanings, and categorizing into clusters of themes and validating
to identify experiences common to all informants with original text (Tiwaken et.
al, 2015).