Using frame analysis to re-analyse the results of inductive thematic analysis: A methodological discussion of investigating meanings and learning contexts in baccalaureate nurse education

Abstract

Aims Recovery of the antecedents and assumptions of Goffman's frame analysis to illustrate learning contexts in baccalaureate nursing programs.

Design A discussion paper on the secondary analysis of focus group data.

Data Sources Focus group data collected in a multi-site study conducted in 2017 to understand the challenges of transitioning to practice in Lebanon. The discussion is illustrated with empirical data, but the article is a conceptual paper not a research report.

Implications for Nursing Transition to practice research requires studies of interaction in university schools of nursing to examine the meanings embedded in classroom instruction.

Methods Clarification and use of Goffman's concepts of primary frame, mainframe (storyline), keying, and re-keying to describe how differences in learning contexts make the transition to practice difficult.

Conclusion Baccalaureate nursing education consists in re-keying the knowledge students bring with them to university into an idealized conception of nursing practice. This storyline dominates classroom learning and is re-keyed into the pragmatic approach to nursing practice that dominates learning contexts in clinical units. Students respond to discrepancies between the meanings embedded in classroom and clinical unit learning contexts by striving to apply the classroom storyline or delaying their commitment to a nursing career.

Impact The discussion explains how secondary analysis can overcome some of the limitations of inducive thematic analysis. It promotes frame analysis as an intuitive, conceptually sound method for identifying dominant meanings in baccalaureate nursing education. Qualitative researchers who have used inductive thematic analysis can use frame analysis to complement their previous analyses with a structural sociological perspective. We suggest dimensions to help investigators interpret learning contexts. Frame analysis of classroom interaction will bring new insights to transition to practice research.