The Research Process
This project will be conducted through a sequence of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data.
Data Collection Tools
The online questionnaire will be sent to participants via email using the password-protected Qualtrics survey program. The survey is formatted using both open-ended and closed-choice style questions, and should require no longer than thirty minutes to complete. Responses will remain anonymous and confidential. To view a PDF version of the questionnaires, please open the following links:
Questionnaire for Administrative Personnel
Questionnaire for Registered Nurses
Why Focus on Nurses?
Exploring the social structure in settings of conflict is necessary to locate those within the system who are positioned centrally within the organization. In his book, The Moral Imagination, John Paul Lederach uses a web metaphor for illustrating connectivity in conflict settings, which is about “finding resources based on relationships, connectors, and social spaces within the setting that have a capacity to generate processes of change” (Lederach, 2005, p. 80). In this study, we focus on nurses because of the intersecting space they occupy between patients, families, support staff, administrators and physicians within their respective organizations. By recognizing relational spaces and encouraging elicitive responses, this research project can explore the authentic perceptions of power and conflict across transaction-based and patient-centered health care environments.