Researching aged care during COVID: Adapting to the unexpected: the use of an online medium while conducting qualitative interviews in residential aged care during COVID-19

This presentation will discuss the use of an online medium while conducting qualitative interviews in residential aged care during COVID-19. The research, which explores the connection between leadership and person-centredness, is phenomenological in design. Thirty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with residents, family members and staff, focusing on their lived experience of person-centredness – whether receiving, providing, leading or witnessing it. The original intention was to undertake in-person interviews onsite at two residential aged care facilities. However, this approach became unrealistic once health authorities imposed COVID-19-related visitor access restrictions. This necessitated another way of interacting with participants requiring creative and strategic cooperation from all involved.
With appropriate consent, I recorded and transcribed the interviews using Zoom. Revisiting the discussions through the recordings, combined with the transcribing process, facilitated immersion in the data, added a deeper layer of rigour and was valuable and rewarding. The transcribing was more time-consuming than anticipated but enabled the participants’ voices and sentiments to be accurately represented in text. Zoom’s video aspect (with visuals and sound) allowed me to re-live the conversation several times, especially while preparing the transcripts. From a phenomenological perspective, there was a familiarity and intimacy with the data that voice alone cannot provide.
This presentation will describe the Zoom journey and its outcomes, including the unexpected benefits. It will also outline some of the challenges, practicalities, pitfalls and lessons learnt. It is appropriate for an audience of researchers and industry practitioners.