S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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questions relate to remote generalist nurses’ construction of a social world in delivering mental healthcare and hence inquiring about their experiences. When considering the actual interview format three types of interviews exist: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured (Bowling, 2009). Structured interviews have predetermined questions pursuant to an interviewer schedule; a formulated sequence of questions for each interview. Accordingly the interviewer dictates the interview schedule and questioning sequence (Watson, McKenna, Cowman & Keady, 2008). Semi-structured interviews can be situated between these two types. They are flexible, and allow new questions to be added to the interview schedule, in contrast to the structured interview. Accordingly the interviewer did refer to an interview schedule unlike in a completely unstructured interview (May, 2011) and hence, conducted semi-structured interviews with all participants. The study employed the semi-structured interview method for the following reasons. Firstly, the remote nurse participants had an enormous wide ranging degree of work experiences and this variation in experiences and settings precluded the use of a standardised method. Secondly, a semi-structured method was appropriate for exploring and gathering information and tapping into the knowledge of non–remote generalist nurse participants. Thirdly, the approach permitted the researcher to probe for more information or clarification of participant’s replies, which would not have been possible via a structured method. Probing does not necessarily mean further questions of clarification on every occasion, it can mean ‘an expectant glance’ or ‘um, hm, um or yes, followed by an expectant silence’ (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The researcher engaged in ‘probing’ without aforethought or planning but when cued by a response. In summary the semi-