This study was situated within the interpretivism paradigm and
took a qualitative research approach to data collection and
analysis. The interpretivism paradigm is based on ‘the
researcher’s set of beliefs and feelings about theworld’ (Denzin
&Lincoln 2005).Therefore, themajor focus of research within
this paradigm is to examine the lived experience and to
understand people’s comprehension of their constructed social
world and their perceptions of social reality (Mason 2002, Polit
& Beck 2006, Edwards & Skinner 2009). Within the
interpretive paradigm, it is acknowledged that there are
multiple realities which are always constructed within a
context, and these realities are not fixed (Munhall 2007). An
interpretivist perspective therefore recognises that the ultimate
truth or falsity cannot ever be established (Polit&Beck 2006).