Confidentiality, Privacy, Anonymity, And

The ability to respect an individual’s knowledge, experience, and human rights is one of the main aims of hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen 1990). Exploring the Nurse Manager’s experiences of induction and explicating individual core essences may however impact on privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality (Comersamy and Siu 2013).
Ethical approval to undertake the study was obtained from Dundee University Research Ethics Committee (Appendix C). Progressing through an ethical approval process empowered this first time researcher to immerse themselves in the potential ethical ramifications of the study prior to initiation. Reflection on the potential consequences of the research study on participants’ lives was undertaken therefore contributing significantly to safeguarding the participants from harm (Burnard and Newell 2011; Polit and Beck 2012).

The anonymity and confidentiality of participants and their generated data was guaranteed through the removal of any individual identifiable information such as hospital, locality identifiers, job titles, and practitioner names (Burnard and Newell 2011; Comerasamy and Siu 2013). At the stage of transcription, each participant was provided with a pseudonym to protect their identity and this was only known to the researcher (Parahoo 2006). The narratives were transcribed by the researcher and all information generated stored electronically within a password protected computer programme and audio files were stored within a secure cabinet with researcher only access (Burnard and Newell 2011). On successful conclusion of the dissertation all audio recordings will be destroyed. The anonymised transcripts will be stored securely for a period of 5 years and then