WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

During the course of this study my supervisors would read and provide written and verbal
comments on my interpretations. Dignam in her interview with Giddings regarding
grounded theory (in Giddings & Wood, 2000) comments that when phenomenological
research is presented, there is “resonance” and “everybody says ‘yes, we knew that’”
which Giddings acknowledges is the “phenomenological nod” (p.9). Two midwifery
colleagues who did not participate in this study asked to read chapters four, five and six.
One coordinator remarked the stories so ‘rang true’, that she experienced increasing
difficulty reading the stories. She realized she identified with the coordinators’
experiences in this study to such an extent that it had made her wonder why she came to
work. The other coordinator remarked how affirming she found the stories. This
coordinator remarked for the first time she recognized and understood her “helicopter
view” in her workplace (Draycott, Winter, Croft & Barnfield, 2006, p.95). In turn she
expressed feelings of empowerment from participants’ stories which she explained
mirrored her own experiences and highlighted how pivotal she is in her role as a
coordinator.
I believe I will have achieved trustworthiness for this study if the reader responds in
similar ways and if this study brings the reader to new levels of understanding about this
phenomenon. Ironside sums this up well; “….if it grabs you, hooks on, then you’ve ‘got
it’” (In Smythe et al., 2008, p.1396).
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