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This paper presents a discussion of research methods that were used to enhance the truthfulness, consistency and transferability of the findings from a qualitative study.
Introduction
One approach to dealing with the truthfulness, consistency and transferability of qualitative research is to apply similar canons to those that are used to evaluate the validity, reliability and generalisability of quantitative research. The inappropriateness of applying these positivistic canons to interpretative research has been reported (Cutcliffe and McKenna 1999).
A second approach is to deal with the truthfulness, consistency and transferability of qualitative research by including specific tailored criteria within a study to enhance these. This paper describes criteria one of the authors utilised within a doctoral study to increase the truthfulness, consistency and transferability of a qualitative study (Slevin 1998). The research involved an investigation to explicate the role of community nurses for people with learning disabilities (CNLD) in caring for clients who display challenging behaviours in community settings in Northern Ireland. The study involved a grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin 1990). Interviews, a survey questionnaire and document searches were the main data collection methods used in the research. To enhance the truthfulness, consistency and transferability of the date the following methods were employed:
* Use of a constant comparative method.
* Internal consistency checking.
* Convergent truthfulness evaluation.
* Respondents and expert involvement.
* Providing candid narrative accounts and an audit trail.
* Utilising a reactivity analysis framework.
* Transferability enhancement methods.
* Providing rich and dense data.
It is suggested that the research methods described here, while not all new as separate endeavours, can provide a rigorous means of assuring the truth and consistency, and enhancing the transfer value, of qualitative research findings when used in combination. The approaches, which enhanced the overall credibility of the research findings, are illustrated in Fig. 1.
Truthfulness and consistency
Validity in quantitative research generally means that an instrument, or indeed the total study, measures what it proclaims to measure (Pout and Hungler 1999). Such definitions, however, are limiting in qualitative research. In qualitative research validity is seen as the extent to which findings represent reality, so issues of credibility and truth value take prominence (Field and Morse 1985; Hinds et al 1990; Perakyla 1997)). In the...