Vignette Selection for Ethical Reflections: A Selection Procedure for Vignettes to Investigate Staff Reflections on the Ethical Challenges in Interaction with People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Care staff in Norway usually work in the private homes of people with intellectual disabilities. Staff experience ethical challenges daily in their interactions with their clients. The aim of this paper is to introduce a vignette validation procedure for selection of practice-close vignettes that can be used to elicit and explore staff reflections on ethical challenges in their work. Staff participants were recruited from different municipalities in one county of Norway. To develop vignettes with good internal validity, the validation process consisted of (1) a field study to identify situations to be included as vignettes, (2) a six-step categorization process to select vignettes with good internal validity, (3) transforming the situations into vignettes, including removal of elements that were too leading or constricting, (4) testing the familiarity and relevance of the preliminary sample of vignettes (external validation), (5) final selection of four vignettes to be included in the investigation, and (6) a validation of the four vignettes’ familiarity and practical relevance as ethical challenges by the final sample of interviewees. Our preliminary experience indicates that the validation procedure enhanced the selection of vignettes to elicit staff perceptions and reflections on daily ethical challenges.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• Intellectual Disability
• Interaction
• Reflections
• Staff
• Vignette Method

Notes

¹Social educators are part of the Norwegian health and social work profession. Social educators perform social education and habilitation and rehabilitation activities with people with physical, mental and/or social disabilities who desire and have use for such services. Intellectually disabled people are a major target group for social education work.

²Informants may modify their responses due to their awareness of being a participant in a research study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

May Østby

May Østby is an assistant professor at Molde University College, Norway. Her background is as a social educator with a masters degree in nursing science. She has 18 years’ experience as a social educator and supervisor in services for people with intellectual disabilities. Since 1993 she has been working as a teacher in the Bachelor of Social Education Programme

Stål Bjørkly

Stål Bjørkly is a professor at Molde University College and a research consultant at Oslo University Hospital, Norway. He has over 30 years’ experience as a clinical psychologist for people with mental disorders and/or intellectual disabilities. He has published two books and around 40 articles and book chapters