This assignment will focus on creating an overview of trustworthiness and its four criteria, it will then go on to explain the strategies that will used to address the trustworthiness of my proposed study on, the role of modern technology in preparing nursing students for 21st century healthcare.
Overview of Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is an important concept in qualitative research that refers to the degree of confidence researchers can have in their data and findings (John, 2023). Establishing rigor and trustworthiness helps ensure the credibility, acceptability, and integrity of qualitative research across disciplines (Nassaji, 2020). There are four key criteria that comprise trustworthiness in qualitative studies: credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability ((John, 2023).
Stahl and King (2020) state that credibility reflects the truthfulness and accuracy of the study findings. Strategies like prolonged engagement, triangulation, member checks, negative case analysis, peer debriefing, and external auditing can help enhance credibility. Prolonged engagement with participants builds trust, provides contextual understanding, and yields more accurate interpretations. Triangulation involves using multiple data sources, methods, investigators or theories to corroborate findings while member checking allows participants to review summaries of findings and provide feedback on the credibility of interpretations (Stahl & King, 2020). Negative case analysis requires revising hypotheses when disconfirming cases emerge. Peer debriefing provides an external check by discussing findings with impartial colleagues. External auditing employs an independent expert to scrutinize the research process and conclusions.
Dependability refers to the consistency and reliability of the data over time and conditions (Amin et al., 2020). The goal is to ensure the research process is logical, traceable and clearly documented. Strategies like audit trails, code-recode procedures, stepwise replication, and triangulation can improve dependability. Awan et al. (2023) mentions that audit trails provide in-depth documentation of all methodological decisions and activities. According to Nassaji (2020) code-recode procedures involve double-coding data and assessing the consistency of codes. Stepwise replication requires researchers to adopt identical research procedures to see if the findings are replicable.
Confirmability refers to the neutrality and accuracy of data to ensure the findings purely reflect the experiences of participants, rather than researcher biases. Strategies for improving confirmability include reflexivity, triangulation, and external auditing. Reflexivity involves critically self-reflecting on personal assumptions, positions and possible biases. Triangulation and auditing were described earlier.
Finally, transferability refers to the potential for extrapolating findings to other settings or groups. Providing rich, detailed descriptions of the context, participants, and findings enables readers to assess the transferability of findings to their own settings. Descriptions should specify the particulars of the field site, selection and demographics of participants, processes of data collection and analysis, and the emerging concepts, themes or models.
Establishing rigor through these trustworthiness criteria is important in validating the accuracy of findings and the credibility of the qualitative research process. The criteria provide structured guidance for critically evaluating the quality, consistency, neutrality, and transferability of qualitative data for applied research purposes (John, 2023). This helps build confidence in using qualitative approaches to develop substantive knowledge and affect discipline practice.
Strategies for Establishing Trustworthiness
To establish trustworthiness in my study exploring the role of technology in nursing education, I will use certain strategies to ensure credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability.
Credibility Strategies
Triangulation of data sources through interviews, focus groups, and documents will allow for cross-verification of findings across these different sources (Stahl & King, 2020). Conducting semi-structured interviews with nursing faculty will provide in-depth perspectives on their experiences and insights integrating technology into curriculum and instruction. Focus groups with nursing students will reveal their attitudes and observations about the effectiveness of technology integration approaches. Analyzing documents like course syllabi and technology integration plans will provide details on implementation models, tools used, and learning objectives. Comparing findings across these diverse sources will allow for corroborating key themes, strengthening credibility.
According to Stahl and King (2020) member checking entails providing participants with summaries of preliminary findings from their interviews or focus groups to review for accuracy and completeness. The participants in the study will have the opportunity to clarify any misinterpretations and provide additional context, which will be incorporated into the final findings. This participant validation will improve credibility. Another strategy will be peer debriefing, which will involve ongoing discussions with impartial colleagues who can critique the methodology, data analysis procedures, emerging interpretations, and potential biases (Stahl & King, 2020). Gaining outsider perspectives on strengths, weaknesses, oversights, or assumptions will enhance the credibility and quality of the research process and conclusions.
Dependability Strategies
To ensure dependability, I will carry out an audit trail, which will contain comprehensive notes and documentation of all the methodological decisions and research activities that I will undertake throughout the study. This includes rationales for the qualitative approach, sampling methods, development of data collection protocols, processes of coding and analysis, and evolution of findings. Amin et al. (2020) states that an audit trail establishes transparency so others can clearly follow and critique the logic and consistency of the research process, strengthening dependability.
Confirmability Strategies
To ensure confirmability I will carry out reflexive journaling. This reflexive journaling will involve reflecting on my positions, assumptions, and prior experiences that may shape interpretations of the data. Being transparent about my subjectivity through memo writing will help bracket potential biases. According to Stahl and King (2020) this increases neutrality and confirmability of findings as being based on the participants’ experiences rather than my own perspective. Triangulation will also enhance confirmability by revealing areas of convergence across the study’s varied data sources. Stahl and King (2020) state that findings corroborated across multiple methods and sources have stronger claims to objectivity and represent participant viewpoints rather than a researcher’s biases.
Transferability Strategy
I will provide thick descriptions providing extensive details on the context, participants, and findings to help readers gauge the transferability of the findings to their specific settings (amin et al., 2020; Stahl & King, 2020). The details will include describing the nursing education program, technology integration approaches, participant demographics, data collection and analysis procedures, and the specific concepts and themes that emerge. This will allow readers to assess the applicability of the findings to their particular contexts.
In conclusion, thoughtfully addressing credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability through triangulation, member checks, peer debriefing, an audit trail, reflexivity, and thick description will help establish rigor and trustworthiness in this qualitative study. This will demonstrate the accuracy, consistency, neutrality, and potential transferability of the findings on nursing technology education. Establishing trustworthiness will strengthen the integrity of the research process and quality of the findings.
References
Amin, M. E. K., Nørgaard, L. S., Cavaco, A. M., Witry, M. J., Hillman, L., Cernasev, A., & Desselle, S. P. (2020). Establishing trustworthiness and authenticity in qualitative pharmacy research. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 16(10), 1472-1482.
Awan, S., Yahya, U., & Arif, M. (2023). Quality standards of qualitative research in applied linguistics: a conceptual review. VFAST Transactions on Education and Social Sciences, 11(2), 68-75.
John, S. (2023). Trustworthiness of qualitative research. A Plethora of Research: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 100-105.
Kyngäs, H., Kääriäinen, M., & Elo, S. (2020). The trustworthiness of content analysis. The application of content analysis in nursing science research, 41-48.
Nassaji, H. (2020). Good qualitative research. Language Teaching Research, 24(4), 427-431.
Stahl, N. A., & King, J. R. (2020). Expanding approaches for research: Understanding and using trustworthiness in qualitative research. Journal of Developmental Education, 44(1), 26-28.
write