
The observations were supplemented by the interviews and focus groups. The observations of paramedic shifts identified the complexities of the decision-making process related to the context. The final phase included workshops to feed back findings.ĭata were coded and thematically analysed. Focus groups with paramedics, followed by focus groups with service users were then completed in order to share personal experiences of the decisions made by the ambulance service in practice. The second phase involved observation of paramedics’ daily work in order to throw light on decisions related to transporting patients. Phase I of the study focused on understanding the context of the study and included interviews with ambulance service staff and the collection of demographics and local policies. The approach followed Denzin’s 5 multiple triangulation approach, which encourages several methods to collect data and multiple investigators with varied expertise.


Several data sets were included and comprised exploratory interviews with ambulance service staff (n=16) document review observations of paramedic shifts (n=34) paramedic accounts (n=10) via audio-recorded ‘digital diaries’ staff focus groups (n=3) and service user focus groups (n=3) to explore a range of experiences and perceptions. Johnson et al,s 6 qualitative study aimed to identify system influences on decision making in a pre-hospital setting with paramedics. 3 Central to triangulation is the notion that methods leading to the same results give more confidence in the research findings. Finally, triangulation can help explain the results of a study. It can assist the confirming of a hypothesis where one set of findings confirms another set. It also helps refute where one dataset invalidates a supposition generated by another. Triangulation can enrich research as it offers a variety of datasets to explain differing aspects of a phenomenon of interest. 2 It is a procedure that enables validation of data and can be used in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Triangulation is also an effort to help explore and explain complex human behaviour using a variety of methods to offer a more balanced explanation to readers. 2 Triangulation, by combining theories, methods or observers in a research study, can help ensure that fundamental biases arising from the use of a single method or a single observer are overcome. 1 Credibility refers to trustworthiness and how believable a study is validity is concerned with the extent to which a study accurately reflects or evaluates the concept or ideas being investigated. The interaction between people in a conversation, such as turn-taking, interruptions and listener response, can reveal aspects of cultural conventions and social roles.Triangulation is a method used to increase the credibility and validity of research findings. Non-verbal aspects of speech, such as tone of voice, pauses, gestures, and sounds like “um”, can reveal aspects of a speaker’s intentions, attitudes, and emotions. Texts can be analyzed in relation to the conventions and communicative aims of their genre (e.g., political speeches or tabloid newspaper articles). The structure of a text can be analyzed for how it creates emphasis or builds a narrative. The way that sentences are constructed (e.g., verb tenses, active or passive construction, and the use of imperatives and questions) can reveal aspects of intended meaning. Words and phrases can be analyzed for ideological associations, formality, and euphemistic and metaphorical content. Critical discourse analysis Level of communication The selected sources can be analyzed on multiple levels. Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words or phrases, discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or collections of texts. to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict). It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve specific effects (e.g.

Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis emphasizes the contextual meaning of language. How is discourse analysis different from other methods?

