Purposive sampling

[redtshirt]

I have a quick question about purposive sampling that I am rather confused about. Purposive sampling is used to gain study participants who would have experience in the phenomena that I want to study. So I want to study nurses with experience in a specific situation. Do I go about trying to recruit participants with a poster e.g. Have you experienced this? Do you want to participate in a study about it? or Do I try to go and handpick the sample of I know nurse Y has dealt with this could i ask her. The books seem to be a bit vague on it and to me it would seem unethical if I was going to broach certain members of staff and ask them to participate. 6 research books in front of me and still cant figure it out!

Thanks

[BCRNA]

Purposive sampling is very similar to convenience sampling. The main difference is that the researcher picks participants based on the researchers judgement that the participant has the desired qualities. You can do posters and recruit "in person". There are no hard and fast rules. When you write out the sampling plan, there is virtually no difference in the actual method used. You can also use snowballing, where participants identify other potential participants. The book is vague because there is no one single way to do it, you just have to clearly report your method in the write up.