The Experience of Participating in an Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program Among Patients with Cardiovascular Disease and Depression: A Qualitative Interview Study

Background Depression in cardiovascular disease (CVD) is associated with poor outcomes and there is a treatment gap of depression in CVD patients. Recently we found that an Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) tailored for CVD patients led to reduced symptoms of depression. However, we still have little knowledge about CVD patients’ experiences of working with iCBT. The aim of this study was therefore to explore CVD patients experience of engaging with a tailored iCBT program. Methods A qualitative interview study using inductive thematic analysis. Data was obtained from 20 patients with CVD and depressive symptoms who had participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the impact of a nine-week iCBT program on depression. Results Three main themes emerged: (1) Taking control of the disease, (2) Not just a walk in the park, and (3) Feeling a personal engagement with the iCBT program. The first theme included comments that the tailored program gave the patients a feeling of being active in the treatment process and helped them achieve changes in thoughts and behaviors necessary to take control of their CVD. The second theme showed that patients also experienced the program as demanding and emotionally challenging. However, it was viewed as helpful to challenge negative thinking about living with CVD and to change depressive thoughts. In the third theme patients reported that the structure inherent in the program, in the form of organizing their own health and the scheduled feedback from the therapist created a feeling of being seen as an individual. The feeling of being acknowledged as a person also made it easier to continuously work with the changes necessary to improve their health. Conclusions Engaging in an iCBT program tailored for patients with CVD and depression was by the patients perceived as helpful in the treatment of depression. They experienced positive changes in emotions, thoughts, and behaviors which a result of learning to take control of their CVD, being confirmed and getting support. The patients considered working with the iCBT program as demanding and emotionally challenging, but necessary to achieve changes in emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

Exploratory Study on User Satisfaction of E-HRM

With the high demands to provide service quality, growing workforce, and globalization of economy, HR has transformed into an inevitable power of technology that transforms HRM into electronic human resource management (E-HRM) systems. Brunei Darussalam without exception is also practicing E-HRM in the government sector called government employee management system (GEMS). This chapter investigates the user satisfaction of E-HRM by examining the current status of GEMS in Brunei Darussalam. The user satisfaction was studied through seven elements: the implementation of E-HRM, training, user-friendliness, infrastructure, data security, technical support, and user support. Qualitative interview and descriptive quantitative method were conducted on HR officers from the public organization. Findings revealed that the GEMS are not able to provide satisfactory system. This chapter has developed a theoretical framework as a recommendation to integrate relevant elements, together with the influence of age, gender, and years of service that impact user satisfaction.

Sign Language Interpreter-Mediated Qualitative Interview with Deaf Participants in Ghana: Some Methodological Reflections for Practice

Qualitative research is adventurous and creative, and committed to understanding unique human experiences in specific cultural ecologies. Qualitative interviewing with Deaf participants is far more challenging for hearing researchers who do not understand sign language, and for this reason such interactions may require the use of a sign language interpreter to facilitate the interview process. However, the quality of sign language interpreter-mediated interactions is likely to be compromised due to omissions, oversights, misinterpretations or additions that may occur during translation. An unthoughtful and poor interpretation of a communicative event by a sign language interpreter during a qualitative interview with Deaf participants may lead to an imposition of the interpreter’s or the researcher’s realities on Deaf participants’ lived experiences. It is thus important that qualitative researchers who conduct sign language interpreter-mediated interviews with Deaf participants employ practical and flexible ways to enhance such interactions. To understand the everyday realities of Deaf people amid the Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana, and document same to inform policy and practice, we conducted qualitative interviews with Deaf participants in Ghana. In this article, we draw insights from our data collection experiences with Deaf participants in Ghana to offer some useful methodological reflections for minimizing omissions in sign language-mediated qualitative interviews and thereby enhancing qualitative data quality. We particularly discuss how qualitative researchers can use language flexibility and post-interview informal conversations with a sign language interpreter to create a natural non-formal interactional atmosphere that engenders natural conversational flow to minimize interpretation omissions and differential power relations in sign language interpreter-mediated qualitative interviews with Deaf participants.

Navigating Academia as a Working-Class Academic

Despite an increasing focus on the impact of class in higher education, less has been said about the experiences of those working-class people who navigate from student to scholar. In the largest interview study to date, conducted in the United Kingdom, this paper draws upon extensive qualitative interview data with ninety working-class academics. This article highlights the hostile encounters faced by these academics but also illuminates the forms of capital and the assets they bring to academia. The article suggests how we can move forward before providing a reminder that the working class should not be viewed by their supposed deficits (real or imaginary).