Mojtaba Jafari, Abbas Ebadi, Hamid Reza Khankeh, Sadat Seyed Bagher Maddah and MohammadAli Hosseini
The uniqueness of the pre-hospital setting and the need for quick decision-making confronts pre-hospital emergency personnel with various moral conflicts that can lead to moral…
Abstract
Purpose
The uniqueness of the pre-hospital setting and the need for quick decision-making confronts pre-hospital emergency personnel with various moral conflicts that can lead to moral distress (MD) in them. This study aimed to design a valid scale for the assessment of MD in emergency medical service (EMS) staff.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory mixed-method study was conducted among the EMS provider's community. In the qualitative section, data were gathered and analyzed with semi-structured interviews and conventional content analysis, respectively. The initial pool of items was formed and the primary scale was designed. In the quantitative section, a methodological study was carried out to determine the psychometric properties of the scale including qualitative-quantitative face validity, qualitative-quantitative content validity with content validity ratio and index (CVR/CVI), construct validity by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and convergent validity, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha/ Omega McDonald's/ floor and ceiling effect) and stability with intra-class correlation (ICC).
Findings
After interviews with 14 emergency technicians, the initial scale was designed with 60 items. Of the total items, 17 poor items were dropped during face and qualitative content validity. In the content validity phase, the items with CVR > 0.62, modified Kappa > 0.74 were retained, which eliminated 23 items. EFA was conducted with 20 items and lead to the 5 factors. The floor and ceiling effect for the whole scale was zero. Finally, the reliability of the scale was confirmed (a = 0.83, O = 0.86, ICC = 0.95).
Originality/value
The developed 20-item scale is a valid and reliable scale for the assessment of the MD in EMS providers.
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Keywords
Hossein Bakhshi, Hiwa Weisi and Nouroddin Yousofi
This paper explores the challenges of conducting qualitative research from ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. candidates' perspectives.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the challenges of conducting qualitative research from ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. candidates' perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The participants of the study consisted of 30 Iranian Ph.D. students majoring in ELT. The semi-structured interview was employed to investigate the heart of experiences, issues and concerns of participants with regard to conducting qualitative research (QLR) challenges. To analyze the collected data, the recorded interviews were transcribed, and then the grounded theory approach was employed (Charmaz, 2006).
Findings
The results revealed that the major challenges of the participants consist of the credibility of QLR in ELT contexts, hermeneutic and fuzzy nature of QLR, qualitative data analysis and interpretation, publishing qualitative findings and the system of measuring professors' productivity.
Originality/value
The findings may help professors, mainly EFL ones, in research mentoring and developing research syllabi for graduate students. In addition, it may motivate Ph.D. candidates to employ QLR methods in their research studies. The pedagogical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the paper.