Data was collected through open individual interviews.
The nurses were asked to freely talk about the encounter in
home-based nursing care and the interview questions for this
study grew out of the nurses’ argumentations about the need
for encounters in order to establish and maintain a relationship and the importance of relationships in home-based nursing care. The narration was supported with
follow-up questions and clarifying questions such as “You
say that the relationship is important, can you explain and
describe more?”, “Can you give examples?”, “What
happened within the relationship in home-based nursing
care?” [16]. According to the participant’s wish, the
interviews were carried out at the participant’s home (n=2),
at the participant’s place of work (n=21) and at the
interviewer’s office (n=1). The interviews were tape-recorded and lasted for 60-90 minutes. The interviews were
carried out by the first author between October 2010 and
December 2010, except of one interview that was done in March 2011 in accordance with the participant’s request. The
interviews were transcribed verbatim