Qualitative examination looks for probe to individual’s emotional state, exposure to behaviours including attitudes (Labaree, 2009). The researcher wanted to explore the social work practitioners' experiences in working with healthcare practitioners within a multidisciplinary healthcare setting, hence the qualitative approach was found to be the most suitable approach for this study. Qualitative research is a type of scientific research that consists of an investigation that seek answers to a question and collects evidence (Crossman, 2018).
Qualitative methods are chosen because they are more flexible, and they allow a greater adaptation of the interaction between the researcher and the participants.
3.2.1 Paradigm
The researcher focused on the interpretivism paradigm to better understand the experiences of social work practitioners in working with health practitioners within the multidisciplinary setting.
The use of an interpretive paradigm in this research is based on the belief that the participants become actively involved in all the phases of the process (De Vos, 2011). The interpretive paradigm is concerned with understanding the world as it is from the subjective experiences of individuals. The interpretivist paradigm is rooted in the fact that the methods used to understand the knowledge related to human and social sciences cannot be the same as their usage in physical sciences because humans interpret their world differently and act based on such an interpretation while the world does not (Hammersley, 2013). Denzin and Lincoln (2003) clarify subjective exploration as including an interpretive naturalistic way to deal with the world.
3.2.2 Research Approach
The qualitative research approach studies people in their natural setting and interprets phenomena in terms of the meanings people attached to them (Crossman, 2018). The qualitative approach was the selected study method for the study. This type of approach was selected because its gives participants the opportunity to state their view points on the phenomena.
3.2.3Research Design
The research design refers to the planned strategies of inquiry within the quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed methods approaches, which involves the interaction of the philosophy that guides the researcher in a specific direction when conducting the study (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018). The authors highlighted the selection of research methods, including the data collection and analysis. Creswell and Creswell (2018) further state that the research design is a strategic framework for action that guides the research activity to ensure that sound conclusions are reached. Maxwell (2013) describes five components of a good research design, namely, the goals of the research, the conceptual framework, the research questions, the methods and the validity of the research.
In this study, an exploratory descriptive design was found to be the most suitable pattern, as the investigator desired to describe the experiences of health social work practitioners in working with health practitioners within a multidisciplinary setting. Delport and Fouché (2011) proposal to combine explorative and descriptive components made efficient use of this investigation. The explorative part was utilized because the study sought to gain insight and understanding of the experiences in working within the multidisciplinary teams.
In this context, the investigator desired to have knowledge of everything social work practitioners understood about their role in the multidisciplinary healthcare setting. The descriptive part, on the other hand, was used to seek the participants’ in-depth descriptions of such experiences through the answering of questions. The investigator desired to ask for answers on the way in which social work practitioners describe their experiences in working with health practitioners within the multidisciplinary healthcare setting. As mentioned earlier, the researcher believes that a combination of an exploratory and a descriptive design was the most appropriate approach to explore the experiences of health social work practitioners in working with health professionals.
3.2.4Sampling Procedures
In this section, the researcher discusses the study population and sampling and sampling methods. Babbie and Mouton (2014) defines population as the totality of persons from which a sample is drawn in order to study a particular research problem whereas Moule and Goddman (2014) define a sample as a subset of the population selected through a sampling technique.
This is when the researcher makes a choice of who needs to be interviewed. Health social workers were the chosen population particularly because of their speciality in the field of healthcare. In this study, health social workers employed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health who fall under King Cetshwayo health district were the populace from whom the sample was selected. Out of 216 social workers employed by the KwaZulu- Natal Department of Health, 25 social workers were employed by King Cetshwayo health district and they served as the population study (kzn-health, 2018). As stated, the selection of this population was based on the nature of the research problem and the relevancy of the population into the study phenomena.
Non-probability sampling was found to be more convenient for the researcher because the population of the study was not amenable to probability sampling, as the researcher was unable to find the entire population (Brink et al., 2012). It has assisted the researcher to select the core contributors who knew the most about the phenomenon under study. Therefore, the sample that was used in this study was purposive sampling. Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest and Wamey (2005) describes purposive sampling as applicable while the participators are selected according to preselected criteria that is relevant to a selected research question. In purposive sampling, the researcher is quite deliberately subjective in choosing those participants who will suit the reason of the research. The sampling units are selected for a particular purpose based on the institution club and experiences of the participators (Holloway
& Wheeler, 2010; Harding, 2013). The sample in a research study looks at the choice and decision of the personal representative of the study population (Babbie, 2009). Useful sampling provides a rich description of records, which improves its transferability (Babbie, 2009). The participants were chosen using the non-random method (Brink et al., 2012). The participants of this study were social work practitioners who are members of the King Cetshwayo Health District Forum. The selection was based on two main criteria for inclusion which was the exposure to a multidisciplinary team and the employment in a healthcare setting within the King Cetshwayo Health District. Social work practitioners employed in other departments were excluded in this study.
The chosen sample was the members of the King Cetshwayo Health District forum. A forum is a group of people who meet on a regular basis as prescribed in the health departmental policy to discuss the challenges, best practices and new developments associated with their work and profession. The forum applies to all full-time social workers employed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health in terms of the Public Act of 1994 (DOH-KZN,2008). This structure was found to be relevant to the phenomenon and the research problem being investigated. Thus, the functions include discussing matters of a common nature that may impact upon the functioning of the health social workers within the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. After the letter of support was obtained from the District Director, the chairperson of the forum was contacted to request a slot during the forum meeting in order to introduce the study. There was a presentation on the proposed study followed by the recruitment of participants which was conducted via the email obtained from the chairperson of the forum. In the context of this study, a sample size of 19 participants was recruited however only 16 members participated. Out of sixteen participants, two participants were unexposed to the MDT.