Table 10 Joint display for qualitative and quantitative data integration
QUANTITATIVE RESULTS | QUALITATIVE RESULTS (PATIENTS INTERVIEWS) | QUALITATIVE RESULTS (NURSES FOCUS GROUPS) | AGREEMENT POINTS | DISAGREEMENT POINTS | CONCLUSIONS |
BFI questionnaire | THEMES | THEMES | X | Â | Both quantitative and qualitative data show that it is an important issue for patients and nurses, which has a strong impact on quality of life. |
Fatigue and work activities median = 5 | FEELING POWERLESS AND AGGRESSIVE It changes.- you are different- influence habit and social relations | OBJETIVITIES AND SUBJECTIVITIES IN THE ASSESSEMENT OF FATIGUE | |||
Patient perception nurses’ care received: | QUALITATIVE RESULTS (PATIENTS INTERVIEWS) | QUALITATIVE RESULTS (NURSES FOCUS GROUPS) | AGREEMENT POINTS | DISAGREEMENT POINTS | CONCLUSIONS |
68.8% of the nurses paid attention to patient’s fatigue | FEELING REASURED BY THE NURSES’ GESTURES BEING INFORMED | NURSING CONTRIBUTION IN THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY MANAGEMENT OF FATIGUE | X |  | Qualitative and quantitative data confirm that nurses pay attention to the fatigue syndrome in patients, despite nurses do not always report the actions they implement to manage fatigue and are scarcely documented. |
53.8% Nurses provided information on how to ask others to do some activities for them | FEELING REASURED BY THE PRESENCE OF FAMILY MEMBERS BEING INFORMED | Those who deal with fatigue | X | Â | Both the quantitative and the qualitative data (of patients and nurses) underline the importance of caregivers. |
57.1% of patients perceived to have received psychological support | FEELING REASURED BY THE NURSES’ GESTURES | X patient quantitative and qualitative data |  | Regarding this aspect, there is agreement between patients’ quantitative and qualitative data. Nurses do not mention about psychological support for the management of the disease. Probably because this type of psychological support was provided by health professions other than nurses, or because they gave it for granted. | |
53.8% no information provided by nurses on how to measure fatigue autonomously | BEING INFORMED | X | Â | There is agreement between quantitative and qualitative data because the patients confirmed, also in the qualitative data, the importance of being informed. However, this information was sometimes incomplete or was provided only to some patients. | |
45.5% no information provided by nurses on how to subdivide the day | BEING INFORMED | ||||
46.2% no information provided by nurses on how to reduce efforts | BEING INFORMED | ||||
46% of the time nurses checked patients for fatigue | FEELING REASURED BY THE NURSES’ GESTURES | OBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVITY IN THE ASSESSMENT OF FATIGUE |  | X | There is inconsistency between what patients and what nurses perceived in relation to the assessment of fatigue. Patients perceived that they had been assessed for fatigue few times, whereas nurses said that they do this assessment, although they underline the difficulty of conducting an objective assessment. |
Patients’ records Difference in reporting fatigue by physicians (15 times) and nurses (5 times) |  | NURSING CONTRIBUTION IN THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY MANAGEMENT OF FATIGUE The nursing management of fatigue DIFFICULTY EVALUATING OUTCOMES |  | X | Despite nurses pay attention to fatigue (see positive aspects), in reality it is documented very little in the patients’ records and it is sometimes described through other symptoms (nutrition, movement/ exercise, etc.) |