The health sector is a field that is evolving incessantly. Besides, it is a sector that relies on science to inform its practice. Consequently, research is almost inevitable to mitigate new challenges or understand phenomena. Although quantitative research is profoundly used in the health sector, qualitative research methods are also essential. Therefore, the objective of this article is to analyze the different qualitative research designs, dissect an article that has used qualitative research methods, and compare some specific facets of the qualitative article to quantitative research tools.
Firstly, Astalin (2013) defines qualitative research as a methodical scientific inquiry that intends to create a holistic description to explain the researcher’s comprehension of a cultural or social phenomenon. Qualitative research is mainly interpretive and the interviewer is an integral part of the interview. The most prominent qualitative research design methods include: phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, and case study (Taquette, & Minayo, 2017). Phenomenology describes an aspect that exists as a central part of the world. People are surrounded with many phenomena; they may be aware of them but may not fully comprehend them. Ethnography is a division of anthropology that offers scientific descriptions and explanations of specific human societies. In simpler terms, ethnography implies ‘portrait of people’ because it describes cultures and people (Astalin, 2013). Grounded theory allows new theories to surface from the collected data. It follows a systematic procedure to gather and code data, as well as to make connections and observe the theories that emerge from the collected data. Lastly, case studies are analyses of events, persons, decisions, projects, periods, institutions, policies, or other aspects, which are investigated holistically by a single or numerous methods.
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O’Connor et al. (2018) study titled “Nursing in an age of multimorbidity” is a prominent example of a qualitative study. In summary, the researchers posit that nurses need to understand important details required to support patients with co-occurring chronic illnesses as well as how to prepare future nurses to care for them. Therefore, the objective of the researchers was to investigate the challenges facing patients and healthcare workers, as well as to discuss some of the possible remedies to the situation. The qualitative research design employed by the researchers is grounded theory because it uses a systematic approach and expounds on the new knowledge gathered from the responses to suggest possible solutions.
Specifically, the researchers used Twitter as a platform to gather responses from interviewees. The responses were mainly in the form of chats and the people that took part in the interview were largely professionals and academics. Collection of data from the online forum was through the NCapture application on NVivo (O’Connor et al, 2018). Subsequently, an analytics tool called Keyhole was used to collect quantitative data from the online platform as well as the respondents who took part. However the data was organized in themes, which discussed the various responses. The themes mainly discussed how patients with co-occurring chronic illnesses can cope with the treatment burden, how nurses can initiate a holistic approach to care, and the future roles of healthcare workers in the evolving healthcare sector. In regard to ethical issues, the researchers got an approval from a university ethics committee.
In conclusion, this study would have been very different if it used a quantitative approach because it is usually very intense. Besides, a quantitative approach usually distances researcher(s) away from the study; the researchers merely rely on the results of responses to inform their study (Sukamolson, 2007). In regard to this study, the researchers would have limited the interviewees’ responses by giving the choices (Yilmaz, 2013). The results would have been analyzed by more sophisticated techniques such as regression analysis or chi-square. The discussion of the study would have mainly dwelt on the interpretation of the statistics accrued from the analysis.
References
Astalin, P. K. (2013). Qualitative research designs: A conceptual framework. International Journal of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Research , 2 (1), 118-124.
O’Connor, S., Deaton, C., Nolan, F., & Johnston, B. (2018). Nursing in an age of multimorbidity. BMC nursing , 17 (1), 49.
Sukamolson, S. (2007). Fundamentals of quantitative research Suphat Sukamolson (Doctoral dissertation, Ph. D. Language Institute Chulalongkorn University. Lang Inst. p: 20).
Taquette, S. R., & Minayo, M. C. (2017). An analysis of articles on qualitative studies conducted by doctors published in scientific journals in Brazil between 2004 and 2013. Physis: Revista de Saúde Coletiva , 27 , 357-374.
Yilmaz, K. (2013). Comparison of quantitative and qualitative research traditions: Epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences. European Journal of Education , 48 (2), 311-325.
