Qualitative Research Design

1. Qualitative ResearchDesign

2. Questions for Thought • What are the three types of qualitative research traditions that have been especially useful for nurse researchers?

3. Design of Qualitative Studies • Study design typically evolves over the course of the study • Emergent design: a design that emerges as the researcher makes ongoing decisions reflecting what has already been learned

4. Design of Qualitative Studies • Study is based on the realities and viewpoints of those under study

5. Design of Qualitative Studies • Characteristics of Qualitative Research Design • Usually choose topics poorly understood or little is known about them • Flexible, ability to adjust as needed • Use various data collection strategies • Holistic • Researcher very involved, usually in the field • Researcher becomes the research instrument • Requires ongoing analysis throughout data collection

6. Qualitative Design • Characteristics of Qualitative Research Design • Do not have independent and dependent variables • Do not develop hypothesis but the findings are often used in quantitative research hypotheses formulation • Do not pose refined research questions, have broad research question • They usually don’t control or manipulate any variables • Don’t make group comparisons • Design is usually nonexperimental • Can be cross-sectional or longitudinal • Can have multiple data collection points over time

7. Planning of Qualitative Studies • Researcher Plans for the Study by Determining: • Which research tradition will be used • Study site or setting • Determine who are the gatekeepers • Time and resources available • Required equipment

8. Qualitative Design • Research Setting • Real-world • Naturalistic settings • In the field • May study phenomena in a variety of settings

9. Qualitative Research Traditions 1. Ethnography 2. Phenomenology 3. Grounded Theory

10. Qualiative Research Traditions: Ethnography • Ethnography • Focuses on the culture of a group of people • CULTURAL BEHAVIOUR (what they do) • CULTURAL ARTIFACTS (what they make and use) • CULTURAL SPEECH (what they say) • Every human group evolves a culture that guides members’ view of the world and cultural values • Researcher learns from the culture versus studying the culture • Can be viewed from macroethnography (broad) or microethnography (narrow) focus

11. Qualitative Research Traditions: Ethnography • Ethnography • Emic perspective • The way the members of the culture envision their world, insiders’ view • Etic perspective • The outsider's interpretation of the experiences of that culture • Ethnographers attempt to gain an emic perspective

12. Qualitative Research Traditions: Ethnography • Ethnography • Researchers may spend years with a culture as an active participant • Researcher as instrument • As the researcher plays a significant role in analyzing and interpreting a culture

13. Qualitative Research Traditions: Ethnography • Ethnography • Collect data through • Observation • In-depth interviews • Records and charts • Photographs • Diaries • Usually 25 to 50 informants

14. Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology • Phenomenology • Focuses on the lived experience • Interpreting and understanding human experience • What people experience in regard to a phenomenon and how they interpret (perceive) those experiences • i.e. meaning of stress, experience of bereavement, quality of life in chronic illness

15. Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology • Phenomenology attempts to understand and describe • Spatiality – lived space • Corporeality – lived body • Temporality – lived time • Relationality – lived human relations

16. Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology • Phenomenology • Steps of study process • Bracketing • Identifying preconceived beliefs and opinions in attempts to view the data without bias • Intuiting • Researcher is open to alternative meanings • Analyzing • Categorizing and making sense of the meanings of the phenomenon • Describing • Researcher understands and defines the phenomenon

17. Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology • Phenomenology • Collect data through • In-depth conversations • Usually 10 or fewer informants

18. Qualitative Research Traditions: Grounded Theory • Grounded Theory • Study's the social processes and social structures • Assesses the manner in which people make sense of social interactions and the interpretations they attach to social symbols • Purpose is to generate explanations of phenomena that are grounded in reality • Uses the data to provide an explanation of events as they occur in reality • i.e. study process used by mothers to cope with the stress of managing multiple responsibilities

19. Qualitative Research Traditions: Grounded Theory • Grounded Theory • Data collecting, analysis and sampling of participants occur simultaneously • Constant comparison – categories are developed from the data are constantly compared with data obtained eariler

20. Qualitative Research Traditions: Grounded Theory • Grounded Theory • Collect data through • In-depth conversations • Observation • Existing documents • Usually 25 to 50 informants

21. Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches • Integrated designs • A research design that integrates qualitative and quantitative methodologies and data • Can be in a single study or a cluster of studies

22. Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches • Integration Strategies • Embedding qualitative approaches within a survey • Embedding quantitative measures into field work • Qualitative data in experimental and quasi-experimental research

23. Reference Loiselle, C. G., Profetto-McGrath, J., Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2011). Canadian essentials of nursing research. (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.