Methodological considerations
The strength of this study is the DNs perspective of the implementation of ICT, i.e. the DNs themselves described their experiences of using ICT in nursing care. The design of the study, a single case study, offers insights into the case before and after the implementation of new technology from the perspective from the DNs’ experiences. The data collection in the form of repeated interviews served to enhance the understanding of the case and produced a broader interpretation. However, this strength is also a potential weakness because the familiarity of the researcher with the person may make objectivity more difficult. Perhaps, the most serious disadvantage of the case study method is its lack of generalizability. That is, if the researcher reveals the existence of important relationships, it is generally difficult to know whether the same relationships would manifest themselves in other subjects (38). Generalization in this case study is therefore more of an analytic generalization and is not applicable to all kinds of care. There are also technical limitations in transferring communication between DNs and ill persons and it seems to create special demands on the participants that can be met to some extent by verbal communication within the triad of participants. The results were discussed with other researchers and colleagues to confirm the trustworthiness of the study (38).