The Nature of Qualitative Research
- You need a deeper what
- illuminates what
- Vital info on
- Improves
- Combines what
- what format does it use
- Can it answer everything
- Qual research is a field of
- What kind of traditions and methodologies
- What kind of worldviews or knowledge
- What guides your methodology
- They each have their own
Deeper understanding of human nature and/or human experiences
Illuminates beyond numbers and statistics- Data as ‘text’
Vital information on meaning, attitudes and satisfaction
Improve practice/ Patient care
Art and science
Textual format
Quantitative cant answer everything
Qualitative research is a field of inquiry
Various traditions and specific methodologies
Unique worldviews or branches of knowledge
Nature of research question will guide your choice of methodology
They all have a field of assumptions on that method
What is the wheel of inquiry possibilities
Which would be quan
All are different methodology approaches
Theoretical experimental and evaluation = quan
Qualitative Inquiry is
is a systematic, interactive, and subjective research method used to describe and give meaning to human experiences
Steps of the Research Process: Qualitative Study 12
Identification of the phenomenon
Purpose of the study
Literature Review
Design/ Methods
Sample (setting usually described here as well)
Legal-Ethical Issues
Data collection procedure
Data Analysis
Findings
Discussion of findings
Recommendation,
Limitations, and Implications
References
When to Choose a Qualitative Method? 4
Little is known about a give topic
There is a search for depth and detail
There is a desire to generate new theory
What will make a difference in people’s lives? Improve nursing practice?
Qualitative Research Methods
3 methods =
- Guide nursing practice
- Contribute to instrument development
- Develop nursing theory
by
- Using personal stories to enlighten and enrich understanding of every- day health experience
- Using the “voice” of research participants to enable evaluation of existing instruments or creation of new ones
- Enabling systematic structuring of ideas that emerge from persons who are experts through life experience
Assumptions of Qualitative Inquiry
- Naturalistic setting = what
- data appears in what form
- How many realities and what are they
- What kind of approach is quan and qual
- The researcher is what
- What nature of design
- How much freedom
- direction of data collection
Naturalistic setting = everything should occur in participants natural setting (live, work)
Data as TEXT (mainly)
Multiple realities- socially constructed, context specific
Emic approach (insider’s view) [we accept things will influence study] Quan assumes etic approach (outsiders view) [opposites]
Researcher is “research instrument” = thoughts, interactions creating meaning
Emergent nature of the design (doesn’t apply to all methodologies)
More freedom with qual
Data collection directions can change depending on the study
Ethical Concerns in Qualitative Research 6
we all have different what
- Participants’ discomfort (depending on area of study it can be hard to talk about)
- Ending the research process
- Withdrawal from the field
- Misrepresentation of participants’ data
- Inappropriate boundaries
- Lack of anonymity (identity)
We all have different perceptions that will affect how we look at data
What is important to include in informed consent 8
what is important to include in qual inquiry 5
Informed consent
- Intro to purpose
- time commitment
- risks and discomforts
- benefits
- anonymity
- confidentiality
- freedom to withdraw
- offer to answer questions
Specific to Qualitative inquiry
- Process consent (ongoing consent)
- avoid delusion of alliance (don’t let your experiences bias,)
- “member checks” (mainfindings jives with what they tell you)
- absence of coercion (careful to how you approach participants)
- sensitivity with vulnerable populations (safety of partipants
Triangulation
- What is it
- enhances and enriches what
- What are the 5 types
- What research form is it
Expansion of research strategies or methods
Enhance diversity and enrich understanding
Five types of triangulation with variety of:
1) Data sources, 2) Investigators, 3) Theory, 4) Methods, and 5) Interdisciplinary
(examples
1.In depth interview, journaling
2.More then one researcher
3.Quan methods, taking theoretical frameworks and changing it)
Mixed methods: qualitative and quantitative
Methodological Approaches (Methods) 7
Grounded theory Case study Historical research Ethnography Phenomenology Participatory Action Research (PAR) Interpretive description, Narrative inquiry, Discourse analysis, Intuitive inquiry (and many others)
Grounded Theory
- Method used to?
- What kind of nature of data
- 2 important parts
- How many assumptions
- What sequences does it look at
- Explains what
- example of it
- What kind of research question
- when do you review literature
- Theoretical sampling is?
- Data saturation is?
- When does data collection and analysis occur, using what method?
- Aim for what
Best way of study!
A method used to:
- explore the social processes that guide human interaction
- Emergent nature of the data (data collection direction can change depending on what happens)
- Theoretical sampling, data saturation
- Has broad range of assumptions in how to do it
- Looking at temporal sequences (past, present, future)
- explains a change
- E.g., Harmonizing hope: A grounded theory study of the experience of hope of registered nurses who provide palliative care in community settings (Penz & Duggleby, 2011)
- The research question can be a statement or a broad question that permits in-depth explanation of the phenomenon
- An exhaustive literature review is not initially done as the theory is to emerge directly from the data
- Theoretical sampling- sampling new cases, fill in gaps, explore new concepts
- Data saturation- data are collected until no new categories emerge
- Data collection and analysis occur simultaneously - using constant comparative method (getting and idea and developing new questions for next person)
- Aim to develop and refine theory that is ‘grounded’ in rich data
Case Study Method
- Studies what?
- What is the phenomena
- Provides familiar what
- Who researched the development of nursing from novice to expert
- Case studies help us formalize what
Studies the peculiarities and the commonalities of a specific case over time to provide an in-depth description of the phenomena in context
Phenomena could be a(n) institution, program, activity, event or process (e.g., illness, disease)
Provides familiar ground for practicing nurses
Patricia Benner is a qualitative researcher who has used the case study approach extensively to explore the process of moving from novice to expert in nursing practice.
Case studies help us formalize experiential knowledge and thus promote quality nursing care (Benner, 1983)
Historical Research Method
- What is it
- What is the goal
- Why might this method be an issue
- Researchers are what
- Use what kind of sources
- Where can it be usually found
The systematic compilation of data and the critical presentation, evaluation, and interpretation of facts regarding people, events, and occurrences of the past
Goal to shed light on the past, guide the present and future
Nursing is a young discipline so does not have a strong theoretical base
Loss of historical data
Historical researchers are narrators and interpreters of past events
Use a variety of sources such as:
Photos, relics/artifacts, oral reports, books, magazines, films, newspapers, and eyewitness accounts
Often found in libraries, archives, or in personal collections
Ethnography
- Ethnographic research is what
- Originated where
- Culture refers to what
- What is important
- Take note of
Example:
- Impact of death and dying on the personal lives and practices of palliative and hospice care professionals (Sinclair, 2011)
- An Institutional Ethnography of Nurses’ Stress (McGibbon, Peter, & Gallop, 2010)
Ethnographic research is a method that scientifically describes the patterns of behaviour of people within a cultural group
Originated in anthropology
Culture refers to the structures of meaning through which people shape experiences (i.e., patterns of behaviour and customs; beliefs, knowledge, and ideas people use)
Context is important:
Personal, social, and political environment in which the phenomenon being studied occurs (e.g., time, place, cultural beliefs, values, practices)
Participant observation or immersion in the setting, informant interviews, researcher’s interpretation of cultural patterns
Phenomenology
- What is it
- What are the experiences called
- What is Intersubjectivity
- What is Bracketing
- Analysis seeks to
Example:E.g., What is the Mother’s experience living with a teenage child who is dying of cancer?
A research method aimed at obtaining a description of an experience as it is lived, in order to understand the meaning of that experience
These experiences are called ‘lived experiences’
Intersubjectivity- sharing a common world
Bracketing – awareness, identification and examination of personal biases, prejudices and values (how do these influence the study?)
-Reflexivity (cause and effect)
As in all qualitative data analysis, analysis in phenomenology seeks to organize and reduce data gathered into themes which can then lead to descriptions, models, or theories.
-E.g., Ranse et al (2018) explored students’ (n=6) lived experience of caring for a dying patient and their family. Analysis revealed three themes: being caring, unexpectedness in witnessing an expected death and experiencing loss. Students demonstrated family-centred care but recounted unexpectedness in both the dying trajectory and physical changes in the dying patient. When reflecting on experiencing loss, students questioned their own actions, acknowledged the value of relationships and identified ways to cope.
(research question leads the study)
Participatory Action Research’
- What kind of approach?
- identify what?
- Implement?
- Evaluate?
- What kind of process
- Collab with who
- Who and what is important
- What kind of nature is the method
- Forms of it
- What is required each step of the process
E.g., ‘We’ve fallen into the cracks’: Aboriginal women’s experiences with breast cancer through photovoice (Poudrier & Thomas Mac-Lean, 2009)
E.g., Mi’kmaq women’s experiences with Pap screenings in Eastern Canada (MacDonald, Martin-Misener, Steenbeek et al., 2015)
Community-based approach to find solutions to problems in partnership with participants
Identify actions (solutions) to address problems
Implement actions with ‘stakeholders’
Evaluate effects of actions
Cyclical process all done with participants who are the “experts” about the problem
Collab btwn you and study particpants
Stakeholders in the community
Critical social theory
Method is emergent in nature
Interviews, observation, document analysis, photovoice(take photos representing phenomenom)
Narrative accounts, storytelling to share
Participation throughout all steps of the research process
EBP
- hiarchy of evidence value of qual have been what
- and why
- Qual method is best for
- Researchers are continuing to what
In the hierarchy of evidence the value of qualitative studies and the evidence offered by their results have been understated
the hierarchy’s linear application does not seem to fit with the multiple purposes, designs, and methods of qualitative research.
Qualitative methods are the best way to answer research questions that have not been explored in depth, or to look for options when a new perspective is needed in practice.
Researchers are continuing to explore how qualitative evidence can be evaluated and used to improve nursing care
Ted Talk
-Four name themes regarding human connection
Review the slide on ted talk
Courage to be imperfect
Compassion
Connection, living
Vulnerability
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Class 2 Penz material30
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Class 2 PICO, Searching CINAHL and APA Citation14
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Class 8 Penz, K. & Duggleby, W. (2011).12
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Class 9 Eley, Eley, Bertello, & Rogers-Clark (2012). Why did I become a nurse? Personality traits and reasons for entering nursing.13
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