<p>Qualitative interviewing is a method of data collection that is widely used in health research, including nursing, allied health and social work (Wellard and McKenna 2001). While interviews have mainly been used to provide the whole or majority of the data needed in qualitative research (Patton 2002), interviews of an exploratory nature have also been conducted to determine suitable questions for the development of questionnaires (Polit and Beck 2004). With the increasing use of mixed methods research, qualitative interviews are now being used increasingly for data triangulation, to augment the comprehensiveness and validity of a single study and to obtain further information on interesting or unexpected findings (Patton 2002).</p>