Methods
The CANDID tool was designed to identify the needs and experiences of primary carers and of their care recipients during the last twelve months of the care recipient’s life. The tool consisted of 33 open-ended questions evaluating: symptom management, emergency contacts, advance care planning, carer’s perception of the care recipient’s future needs, carer’s current needs, and a proposed current and future care plan. The researcher’s philosophical assumption of interpretative phenomenology informed the study and approach to data collection and analysis. Qualitative data collected during interviews using this tool were thematically analysed in five steps: compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting and concluding. An interpretation of participants’ reality emerged from their common experiences and the subjective meanings assigned to actions attached to the phenomena studied.