Qualitative Research Points for Beginners 2015 www unisa

Qualitative Research Points for Beginners 2015 www. unisa. edu. au/cahe

What is qualitative research? • Qualitative approaches can help answer questions about ‘how’ or ‘why’ • ‘How do clinicians prioritise patients for inpatient rehabilitation services? ’ • ‘Why don’t patients with chronic low back pain stick to exercise recommendations? ’ • Quantitative research, in comparison, uses numerical data to helps answer about ‘what’ • ‘What is our current waiting time compared to previous years? ’ • ‘What is the effectiveness of therapy A compared to therapy B? ’

Qualitative data • Qualitative research uses non-numerical data • The data are words as spoken language, text • Often collected • From healthcare consumers, their family carers or clinical staff • Through interviews with individuals or focus groups • Face-to-face or phone, skype • Recorded - audio or visual and/or written notes • Analysis is enabled by • Transcribing the interview recordings • Software is sometimes used to manage the data

Qualitative approaches used in health research • Many different methodological approaches • For different purposes or underpinned by different theories or philosophical views • May differ in sampling, data collection, and analytical methods • Phenomenology • Ethnography • Grounded theory • Discourse analysis • Feminist research • Action research • Descriptive qualitative ……. and more

Qualitative analysis • Various analytical methods according to the approach • Text data are coded and sorted into categories • This analysis can be managed using software, or using low-tech strategies such as colour coding • Basically divide into: – Inductive analysis (eg. Grounded theory) – Deductive analysis (eg. Content analysis)

Can qualitative research be trusted? • Quality varies - we need to determine credibility, trustworthiness, applicability • Good qualitative research will • Take steps to minimise the bias researchers’ views & experiences may bring to the findings • Make these steps explicit in the publication of their work • The COREQ checklist is helpful (Tong et al 2007) • • For determining quality of reporting & from that you can make decisions about acceptability of the work Checklist for planning and reporting a new qualitative study

COREQ checklist

(CORQ): 1. Research team & reflexivity • Personal characteristics of the researchers • Who conducted the interviews? Their credentials, occupation, gender, experience & training? • These can all impact on the quality and type of data collected • Relationship of researchers with participants • Interviewer characteristics – interests in the topic

(CORQ): 2. Study design • Theoretical framework • Participant selection • • Sampling –how were participants selected Method of approach Sample size Non-participation • Setting of data collection • Presence of non-participants • Description of sample

(CORQ): 2. Study design cont… • Data collection • • Interview guides Repeat interviews Audio/visual recording Field notes Duration Data saturation Transcripts returned

(CORQ): 3. Analysis & findings • Data analysis • • • Number of data coders Description of the coding tree Derivation of themes (inductive or deductive) Software Participant checking • Reporting • Quotations presented • Data & findings consistent • Clarity of major & minor themes

References • Murray C, Stanley M (Eds). (2015) Qualitative Research Methodologies for Occupational Science and Therapy. New York: Routledge • Tong A, Sainsbury P, Craig J. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): a 32 item checklist for interviews and focus groups. Int J Quality in Health Care. 2007; 19(6) 349 -357 • Hoffmann T, Bennett S, der Mar C. (2010) Evidence-based practice across the health professions. Elsevier Australia • Finlay L & Ballinger C (Eds). (2006). Qualitative research for allied health professionals: challenging choices. John Wiley & Sons. 12