Interviews

Medical and administrative leaders were contacted by both email and telephone at each site and asked if they would be willing to undergo a formal interview by telephone. We identified one key medical leader from each site.

A script for a semi-structured interview was created through an iterative process. An initial script was generated, piloted on quality and safety research colleagues and revised. The script was used as a guide for the interview but was not rigidly followed to allow for spontaneous discussion of elements not addressed within the script.

The areas of assessment that were targeted in the interviews were defined by two members of the research team (MB and WB). These included: motivation/rationale for the debriefing initiative, contextual factors, role of local leaders, implementation process, functionality, evolution/sustainability, buy-in and reinforcement. In addition, the impact of the debriefing strategy on process and safety outcomes, team-work and communication was assessed. Each interview was performed by telephone using a web-based recording program and transcribed.

Transcribed interviews were reviewed by the primary interviewer alongside the original recording to ensure accuracy.