Table 2.

Outline of Methodological Steps and Rationale.

Steps	Related actions	Rationale and operationalization
Prestudy Tasks	Review the literature	Demonstrates knowledge of the topic and situates research. Included a broad scoping review of international literature relating to self-employed nursing and then a literature review of studies specifically focused on the regulation of self-employed nurses internationally.
	Engage in reflexivity	Protects the confirmability and dependability of the research. Maintained a reflexivity journal to investigate philosophical assumptions and personal biases throughout the research project.
Design	Define the cases	Cases chosen to accurately reflect the research question. Elected to study the regulation of RNs and NPs in various Canadian provinces to facilitate a fulsome investigation of self-employed nursing regulation.
	Select a case configuration	Appropriate arrangement of cases according to the research question allows for accurate analysis and findings. Chose three holistic cases with wide variation to allow for an effective overview of the regulation of self-employed RNs and NPs in Canada.
Selection of cases	Outline case boundaries	Cases must be clearly bounded to allow for accurate data collection and analysis. Cases included data relating to the regulation of nurses and more specifically, self-employed nursing practice.
	Complete selection process	Provides rationale for the inclusion of each case and how they are applicable to the research question. Completed a selection of cases based on several contextual factors and which of the provincial RN regulators had recently updated self-employed nursing practice guidelines.
Data collection	Identify multiple sources of data	Allows for triangulation data which is a cornerstone of case study research. Data in the form of web pages, documents, statutes, news articles, and videos was three different regulators, governments, and other public sources.
	Create a case study protocol	Outlines procedures for proceeding through the research in a systematic and rigorous fashion. Crafted a protocol that included overview of the case study, data collection procedures, guiding questions, and a tentative outline for the report.
	Establishing a study database	Stores and organizes data for future retrieval. A comprehensive database was maintained using Zotero.
	Piloting a case	Trials the case study protocol and design on one case before proceeding to the others. Small revisions to the protocol were made following the first case to further focus the data collection procedures and guiding questions.
	Maintain a chain of evidence	Demonstrates the confirmability of results. A research journal was maintained throughout the study to keep record of all decisions, notes, and memos which is stored in the database.
Data Analysis	Analysis begins with collection	Searches for initial themes and patterns. The first iteration of the analysis began when searching for data in the public realm.
	Consider data from multiple perspectives	Acknowledges different realities that may be represented within the data. Considered the perspective of the regulator, the self-employed nurse, those nurses interesting in becoming self-employed, and the public.
	Deductive and inductive approach	Build understanding of evidence from the ground up. The research question and guiding questions facilitated a deductive analysis while continually searching for emerging concepts.
	Individual case descriptions	Provides rich understanding of each case in itself. The data for each case was collected, analyzed, and reported on individually before the cross-case analysis.
	Cross-case analysis	Provides patterns and themes across cases while maintaining the integrity of each.
	Investigate all plausible rivals	Demonstrates acknowledgement of multiple realities and protects the rigor of the results. Sought alternative explanations to challenge interpretations of the data.

Note. Methodological steps and rationale informed by Yin (2018).

NP: Nurse Practitioner; RN: Registered Nurse.