SMARAGD

The first phase of the SMARAGD project is dedicated to understanding the information needs of occupational and physiotherapists, focusing on patients’ health data stored and managed in the hospital information system (HIS). A new methodological approach has been defined to research these needs, reacting to the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initially planned as participant observation and analysis according to ethnographic semantic, as well as focus groups with therapists, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the project team to change the methodological approach. Due to the lockdown, the SMARAGD consortium partners agreed on an (initially) alternative approach to data collection, which should guarantee the most adequate, methodologically reflected approach to the original form of data collection possible under the given conditions. A guideline for telephone interviews was defined as an alternative. The starting point was the assumption that the field contact necessary for the empirical steps of the survey could not be established in time.

Telephone interviews – a good alternative?

The interview is a reconstructive instrument [1] that records the memories of the interviewee, which must be interpreted in relation to their experiences on the one hand and their memories on the other [2]. In the interview, therefore, ‘pure’ experiences are never recalled; rather, an experience overlaid with evaluations is reproduced, which is always presented with a view to the interviewee. There are differences to actual practice both in terms of content and in the scope and depth of experiences: problems, particularities, highlights predominate, routines, everyday occurrences are sedimented, but either incorporated in such a way that they cannot be made explicit, or do not want to be reported due to their apparent self-evidence, or are simply not mentally present.

This can lead to difficulties as an alternative to ethnographic semantics, since it is necessary to stay as close as possible to concrete (treatment) cases. However, telephone interviews are less problematic as an alternative to focus groups. Although group dynamic effects are lost, the situation and needs of the individual person can be addressed more precisely. Overall, the benefits outweighed the doubts; therefore, the team decided to conduct telephone interviews.

As an alternative to both methods, therefore, partners UNIVIE, KFU and SYNYO developed a guideline which, in the first part of the interview, goes through memories of current cases in order to raise awareness of the work situation to such an extent that questions regarding data preparation and visualisation can also be answered along an interview guideline. Thus, on the one hand, the difficulties experienced by the users in dealing with the hospital information system (HIS) and the optimal form in which information should be available (original, aggregated or visualised form) are recorded. On the other hand, aspects of work organisation, especially the associated time burden and the quality of working conditions could be covered in the interviews.

Depending on the further development of the pandemic, partners hope to carry out the initial fieldwork as planned. In that case, the telephone interviews will complement the information gathered.

References

[1] Lueger, M. (2010). Interpretative Sozialforschung: Die Methoden. Wien.

[2] Rosenthal, G. (1995). Erlebte und erzählte Lebensgeschichte. Gestalt und Struktur biographischer Selbstbeschreibungen. Frankfurt am Main.

Links

https://www.smaragdprojekt.at/

Keywords

Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, information needs, electronic health data, interviews, ethnographic semantics, focus groups, methodology, pandemic