Qualitative analysis
One of the authors, an academic nurse with experience in qualitative research, who is currently active in palliative care education, carried out the qualitative analysis. The qualitative analysis was executed independently of the quantitative analysis.The answers to the free text field “experiences, feelings, peculiarities, criticism and wishes” were evaluated by structuring qualitative content analysis according to Kuckartz (2016), first by the author mentioned above and then, for quality assurance purposes, by a second author, as described below. The categories of the main and subcategories were formed inductively in a multi-stage process on the material, whereby first it was roughly encoded along main categories. The next step was to further develop and differentiate the categories in the material. After the entire data material had been coded a second time, the category-based evaluation followed [Steps of the structuring content analysis of KuckartzAfter analysis, a second author, a physician and mindfulness coach, also independently categorized the responses. No differences worth discussing emerged in the analysis. The results were presented to the research group and accepted by all of them. The free text field “Previous experience with mindfulness” was summarized and displayed as a list.