Gateway to Recovery: A Comparative Analysis of Stroke Patients’ Experiences of Change and Learning in Norway and Denmark

Table 2

Five steps in the analytical process inspired by Giorgi [7].

1	Reading and rereading the whole interview in order to gain a sense of the whole	A research assistant undertook the transcription of each interview. Each interview transcript was then read by the first author, after which the interview was played again, to ensure that the transcription was accurate.
2	Natural “meaning units,” as they were expressed by the interviewees, were identified by the researcher	The data were transferred into NVivo 11. The data were analyzed in depth, using a phenomenological method to trace thematic patterns of how to handle life changes.
3	The dominating themes in the meaning units were identified. The researcher tried to thematize from the interviewed person’s point of view, as the researcher understood it	Meaning units were organized and gradually transformed into categories. Firstly, the data were separated into Danish and Norwegian sets and, secondly, similarities and differences were noted.
4	The meaning units were questioned based on the research questions	The data were described in a final set of themes and subthemes that responded the research questions
5	Condensing the nonredundant themes into descriptive statements	The final results were cogenerated by the final author and discussed with coauthors, after which it was considered to constitute essential knowledge