Chapter III

Methodology

This study aims to explore the lived experiences of persons living with Hansen’s Disease

under Ambulatory care.

Research design

This is a qualitative research which will use descriptive phenomenological

approach. Qualitative research is an approach to describe perceptions and insights of

the participants as they live and experience the phenomenon under study. Descriptive

Phenomenological research aims to describe the meaning that experiences hold for

each subject.

Study Population

The participants of the study will be persons living with Hansen’s disease under

ambulatory care within the inclusion criteria. Purposive sampling will be used in which

the researcher will purposively select individuals with leprosy under ambulatory care as

participants.

Inclusion criteria will be:

 Patient above 18 years old.

 Patient diagnosed with leprosy.

 Patients who are able and willing to narrate their experiences.

 Patient who consented to participate in the study.

Data Collection and Research Instrument

The data will be collected directly from the participants who are willing to answer

the research question. Data will be collected through face to face, unstructured in- depth

interview with each of the participants using an interview guide. Throughout the interview

process, the field note and an audio recorder will be used to record all observations

made and to view the phenomenon through the participant’s perspective. Before the

start of the study, permission from the Research Adviser, Research Coordinator and the

Acting Dean of the School of Undergraduate studies of Central Philippine University,

Iloilo City, Philippines will be obtained. The trustworthiness of the study depends on the

extent to which the researcher has accounted for its reliability and validity. This includes

credibility, transferability, confirmability, dependability and authenticity. Within these

concepts are specific strategies for demonstrating rigor. Ethical considerations for the

study included upholding principles of human subject research, getting informed

consent, weighing the benefits and risks, and yielding the proposal for the institutional

review. The consent form will explain the research study, rights and protection of the

participants, their opportunity to decline to answer a specific question and to withdraw

from the interview at any time. At the beginning of each interview, the purpose of the

study will be explained and the informed consent will be interpreted for the participants

who are not literate in English. The participants will be asked to sign the waiver of the

informed consent and a copy of the consent form will be given to them. They will be

informed that all their answers will be treated with strict confidentiality, will not be

divulged to anybody and will be used solely for research purposes. To maintain

anonymity as well as to protect their privacy, the use of their last names in this study will

be refrained.
Establishing Rigors and Trustworthiness

Rigors relates to establishing the trustworthiness of the data and study (Lacey,

2006). This study will be guided by the procedure deemed suitable and explicit for

qualitative research by Lincoln and Guba (1985) to promote trustworthiness of the data.

This includes credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability and authenticity.

Credibility

Credibility aims at increasing the truth and value relating to the findings of the

study and presentation of these and is achieved through Member checks and prolonged

engagement in the field. One of the essential ways of establishing credibility is prolonged

engagement with participants. The researcher will achieve credibility using a one-to-one

in-depth interview.

Transferability

According to Finlay, Transferability can be achieved through thick description of

setting and or participants and encourages qualitative researcher to provide detailed

portrait of setting in which the research is conducted (Finlay, 2003).This aims to give

readers enough information for them to judge the applicability of the findings to other

settings.

Dependability

According to Kock, one of the ways of ensuring dependability is to engage in

regular auditing of the research process (Kock, 1994). In this study, we can achieve
dependability by transcribing each participant’s verbatim of the audio recorded
information and will continue listening to the audio recorded data for clarity.
Confirmability

Confirmability is achieved through audit trail and reflexivity (Finlay, 2003). The

researcher will derive findings and conclusions from the participant’s narrative, thus

bracketing will be applied to ensure that it is not the researcher’s knowledge, beliefs and

biases. This will be achieved by interviewing participants and audio recording each

participant’s verbatim.

Authenticity

Authenticity is achieved through the researchers describing truthfully and

accurately the varied experiences of participants. It focuses on the degree to which the

researchers faithfully and fairly described participant’s experiences. The researcher will

achieve authenticity by the use of audio recorders and transcription of the verbatim

increasing the accuracy of description of the participant’s experiences.

Ethical considerations

The researcher will sought permission from their Research Adviser, Research

Coordinator and the Acting Dean of the School of Undergraduate studies of Central

Philippine University, Iloilo City, Philippines before conducting the study. Each

participant will be asked to sign an informed consent before collecting any data and the

use of their last names in this study will be refrained to ensure confidentiality of the data

collected.
Data analysis plan

The data will be analyzed by the researcher using Colaizzi’s method (1978). By

doing so, this will explain the total issues that are needed to be faced in analyzing an

interview.

1.) Transcribing all participants’ descriptions.

2.) Extracting significant statements/familiarization and coding.

3.) Creating formulated meanings.

4.) Aggregating formulated meanings into themes and sub themes.

5.) Writing an exhaustive description of the phenomena.

6.) Literature review to understand the phenomena.