Qualitative-Research-Methods

1.  Houser, J. (2012) Nursing Research: Reading, Using
and Creating Evidence (2nd Ed.). Chapter 16.
 Polit, D. & Beck, C. (2010). Essentials of Nursing
Research: Appraising Evidence for Nursing Practice
(7th Ed.). Chapter 10
QUALITATIVE DESIGNS &
APPROACHES

2. Goal of Qualitative Inquiry
Identify the meaning of a phenomenon, event or
experience for an individual

3. Qualitative Research as
Evidence for Practice
Qualitative studies are best for
identifying patient preferences,
aggregating clinician experiences, and
for identifying trends in the
recommendations of clinical experts.

4. Naturalistic vs Positivist
 Naturalistic paradigm
 Reality is not fixed.
 Reality cannot be known…it is constructed by each
individual.

5. Characteristics of Qualitative
Research Design
 Flexible, elastic
 Holistic
 Intense researcher involvement
 Emergent: ongoing analysis guiding design decisions
 Bricolage: merging various data collection strategies

6. Characteristics of Qualitative
Research Design, Cont.
 No comparison group
 Focus is to describe & explain new phenomenon
 Non statistical methods
 The Researcher:
 becomes intimate with subjects
 may remain in field for long periods of time
 is the research instrument.

7. Characteristics of Qualitative
Research Design, Cont.
 Data analysis:
 is ongoing.
 may lead to changes in data collection.
 strives for an understanding of the whole.
 Flexible approach to data collection
 No set plan that needs the researcher needs to stick to as with
quantitative
 Researcher does not know how study will evolve.

8. Why is it important to nursing?
 Nursing is:
 Humanistic
 Holistic
 Studying human experiences related to health and
wellness can provides a wider prospective regarding
how patient’s respond to & manage problems related to
healthcare.

9. Advance Planning and Activities in
Qualitative Studies
 Selecting a research tradition
 Selecting a study site
 Identifying gatekeepers, gaining entrée
 Identifying needed equipment for the field
 Analyzing personal biases

10. Overview of Qualitative Research
Traditions
 Anthropology (Domain: Culture)
 Ethnography; Ethnoscience
 Philosophy (Domain: Lived Experience)
 Phenomenology; Hermeneutics
 Psychology (Domain: Behavior)
Ethology; Ecological psychology

11. Overview of Qualitative Research
Traditions
 Sociology (Domain: Social Settings)
 Grounded theory; Ethnomethodology
 Sociolinguistics (Domain: Communication)
 Discourse analysis & Content analysis
 History (Domain: Past Events, Conditions)
 Historical research
 Medicine/Psychology: Case Study

12. Ethnography
 Describes and interprets a culture and cultural behavior
 Culture is the way a group of people live—the patterns of
activity and the symbolic structures (for example, the
values and norms) that give such activity significance.
 Relies on extensive, labor-intensive fieldwork
 Culture is inferred from the group’s words, actions, and
products.
 Assumption: Cultures guide the way people structure their
experiences.
 Examines interrelationship between people,
environment, culture, & health.

13. Types of Ethnography
 Macroethnography (broadly defined cultures)
 Microethnography (narrowly defined
cultures)
 Auto-ethnography/insider research (the study
of one’s own culture)
 Ethnonursing research (the intersection of
nursing concerns and human culture)

14. Phenomenology
 Focuses on the description and interpretation of people’s lived
experience
 Asks: What is the essence of a phenomenon as it is experienced
by people, and what does it mean?
 Acknowledges people’s physical ties to their world: “Being in
the world”
 Four key aspects of experience: Lived space, lived body, lived
time, lived human relation
 Main data source: In-depth conversations with a small number
of participants who have experienced the phenomenon

15. Descriptive Phenomenology
 Describes human experience
 Based on philosophy of Husserl
 Steps: Bracketing, Intuiting, Analyzing, Describing
 Bracketing (identifying and holding in abeyance
preconceived views)
 May involve maintaining a reflexive journal

16. Interpretive Phenomenology
 Emphasis on interpreting and understanding
experience, not just describing it
 Based on philosophy of Heidegger: Heideggerian
hermeneutics
 Bracketing does not occur.
 Supplementary data sources: texts, artistic
expressions

17.  Example:
Hughes, A., Gudmundsdottir, M., & Davis, B. (2007).
Everyday struggling to survive: Experiences of the urban
poor living with advanced cancer. Oncology Nursing
Forum, 34(6), p. 113-118.

18. Grounded Theory
 Focuses on the discovery of a basic social psychological
problem that a defined group of people experience
 Elucidates social psychological processes and social
structures
 Has a number of theoretical roots—e.g., symbolic
interaction
 Originally developed by sociologists Glaser and Strauss

19. Grounded Theory Methods
 Primary data sources: In-depth interviews with 20
to 40 people; may be supplemented with
observations, written documents
 Data collection, data analysis, sampling occur
simultaneously

20. Grounded Theory Analysis
 Constant comparison used to develop and refine
theoretically relevant categories
 Focus is on understanding a central concern or core
variable
 A basic social process (BSP) explains how people
come to resolve the problem or concern

21. Alternative Views of Grounded
Theory
 Glaser and Strauss (generation of explanatory
theory linking related concepts); called
Glaserian methods
 Strauss and Corbin (full conceptual
description)
 Nurse researchers have used both approaches

22.  Example:
 Pain management decision making among long term care
physicians & nurses” (Kaasalairens et al., 2007)

23. Case Studies
 Not all qualitative studies are conducted within a
disciplinary tradition. Examples include:
 Case studies
 These focus on a thorough description and explanation
of a single case or small number of cases.
 Cases can be individuals, families, groups, organizations,
or communities.
 Data often are collected over an extended period.

24. Narrative Analysis (Content Analysis)
 Texts that provide detailed stories are sometimes
analyzed through narrative analysis.
 There are numerous approaches to analyzing texts.
 One example is Burke’s pentadic dramatism: analyzes
5 elements of a story (act, scene, agent, agency,
purpose); meant to be analyzed in ratios, such as
act:agent

25. Descriptive Qualitative Studies
 Many studies do not claim any specific type of
approach or disciplinary tradition.
 Such descriptive studies seek to holistically describe
phenomena as they are perceived by the people who
experience them.
 The researchers may say that they did a content
analysis of the narrative data with the intent of
understanding important themes and patterns.

26. Research With Ideological
Perspectives
 Critical theory research:
 Such research is concerned with a critique of
existing social structures and with envisioning
new possibilities.
 Transformation is a key objective.
 Ethnographies are especially likely to be critical.

27. Research With Ideological
Perspectives
 Feminist research:
 Focuses on how gender domination and
discrimination shape women’s lives and their
consciousness
 Participatory action research (PAR):
 Produces knowledge through close collaboration
with groups or communities that are vulnerable to
control or oppression

28. Traditional Qualitative Research vs.
Critical Research

29. Literature Review
Literature Review
 2 approaches
 Conduct after the study to prevent undue influence
 Conduct before the study to provide some focus on the
research problem

30. Entry
Select & gain entry into research sites.
 Make contacts with “gatekeepers” regarding how to
access subjects
 Get permission to conduct the study
 Decide on setting for data collection.
 “Real world site”
 May occur in same setting for all participants “ home”
 May differ from one participant to another.

31. Ethics
Ethical practices
 IRB application
 May present more challenges due to intimate nature of
research

32. Sampling Strategies
 Participants
 Informants
 Respondents
 Participants

33. Sampling
 Purposeful sampling
 Researcher identifies criteria for the type of
informant most likely to provide information
needed for the study
 Informed consent
 Snowball sampling
 As participant is identified they in turn identify
others. Useful for sensitive populations
 Extreme case:
 Unusual or special case – superior or worse case

34. Saturation
 The point at which no new information is being
generated and the sample size is determined to be
adequate. The goal is saturation.

35. Data Collection Methods
 Interviews
 Focus groups
 Direct observations
 Field notes
 Direct quotes
 Non verbal communication
 Setting

36. Data Collection & Ethics
 Audio tapes
 Video tapes