Thesis

permission to distribute the questionnaires. The remaining three hospitals gave their consent
to participate in this study through the head nurse. Thus, altogether eight hospitals out of the
12 contacted ones gave their permission to have questionnaires distributed at their respective
emergency wards. After the eight hospitals had given their consent, a time was agreed on for a
personal meeting to take place at all the emergency wards together with the head nurse. At the
time of the personal meetings, the head nurse was given an example of the questionnaires and
it was explained in detail about the purpose of the study. After the meeting, another
appointment was decided upon when the correct amount of questionnaires would be brought
in to the hospital for distribution. When the agreed date had arrived, the correct amount of
questionnaires were brought in to the hospitals and given to the head nurse. All the
questionnaires were stapled together for each nurse and the stapled together version of the
questionnaires had a cover letter attached to it. The cover letter gave information about the
researcher, the study and the questionnaires, and it stated that the questionnaires would be
used for the purpose of this study only. The cover letter also ensured the nurses that the
questionnaires were anonymous and treated confidentially. Also, a big envelope was given
together with the questionnaires to the head nurse, for the purpose of the nurses to put their
filled out questionnaires in it. The envelope would be supervised throughout the data
collection period by the head nurse and it was put in her room. It was agreed that the head
nurse would distribute the questionnaires to the nurses working at the emergency wards and
that the hospital would be contacted after two weeks to see if the distribution of the
questionnaires was going in a good way, that the nurses were filling out the questionnaires,
and that the nurses did not encounter any problems while filling out the questionnaires or had
any questions. After the two weeks had elapsed it turned out that there were no problems in
connection to the distribution or filling out of the questionnaires and thus the data collection
continued undisturbed. However, it did turn out that the nurses wanted more time to fill out
the questionnaires and it was agreed that the nurses could take the time they needed. The
nurses were also informed that filling out the questionnaires should not interrupt or in any
way disturb their everyday job-related tasks and thus they could feel free to take the
questionnaires home, as long as they brought them back to the hospital. The data collection at
each hospital was thus very individual; however all the filled-out questionnaires had been
collected after approximately four months. The head nurses were contacted on a regular basis
and thus information was given when the time had come to collect the filled-out
questionnaires. When this time had come, the hospitals were again visited and the filled-out
questionnaires were handed over personally by the head nurse in the closed envelope given to