Using Naturally Occurring Data in Qualitative Health Research

2019

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

2006

Qualitative methods have much to offer those studying health care and health services. However, because these methods have traditionally been employed in the social sciences, they may be unfamiliar to health care professionals and researchers with a biomedical or natural science background. Indeed, qualitative methods may seem alien alongside the experimental and observational quantitative methods used in clinical, biological and epidemiological research.

Online Journal of …, 2010

Qualitative research is type of formative research that includes specialized techniques for obtaining in-depth responses about what people think and how they feel. It is seen as the research that seeks answer to the questions in the real world. Qualitative researchers gather what they see, hear, read from people and places, from events and activities, with the purpose to learn about the community and to generate new understanding that can be used by the social world. Qualitative research have often been conducted to answer the question "why" rather than "what". A purpose of qualitative research is the construction of new understanding. Here, we present an overview of application of qualitative methods in health research. We have discussed here the different types of qualitative methods and how we and others have used them in different settings/scenarios; sample size and sampling techniques; analysis of qualitative data; validity in qualitative research; and ethical issues.

2018

It is recognised in the literature that some qualitative approaches favour naturally occurring data over researcher-generated, resulting in some healthy debates within the qualitative community. This is not to dismiss the value of researcher-generated methods, as many qualitative researchers see the value of these methods for addressing certain types of questions. Rather, the types of research questions asked and developed by some perspectives are better addressed by collecting naturally occurring data, and therefore this approach to data collection is favoured. In this chapter, we outline the approaches that favour this type of data, and also illustrate how it can be beneficial for a range of different qualitative perspectives that may typically use researcher-generated approaches. The chapter contains practical advice, as well as a general overview of the common qualitative perspectives, in relation to the use of naturally occurring data.

Northeast Network Nursing Journal, 2013

Qualitative research and health has become extremely popular in the last 30 years. Since the 80's, more and more health professionals have engaged in qualitative research. Discriminating a "qualitative research" from quantitative research, though, is a misnomer, since all research is at least part qualitative. After all, when epidemiologists or biostatisticians count something, that category is a qualitative "something". Giddens puts it very well: All so-called 'quantitative' data, when scrutinized, turn out to be composites of 'qualitative'i.e., contextually located and indexical-interpretations produced by situated researchers, coders, government officials and others. The hermeneutic problems posed by ethnographic research also exist in the case of quantitative studies, although these may be in some large part

Professioni infermieristiche, 2019

Within the context of evidence-informed decision making, health care professionals are critical consumers of research evidence. Clinician scientists, including nurse researchers, play a central role in producing this research evidence to inform and improve health practice, education, and policy. Health research is commonly conducted within one of three different paradigms: quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods. Each research approach is underpinned with unique philosophic assumptions, methods, and rhetoric. The evidence produced within each paradigm is necessary to provide health care decision-makers with information about the complex, and intrinsically diverse, human experiences of health and illness. Qualitative health research has been defined as a discipline, which has its roots in qualitative research and yet is unique in its focus, methods, and rules. The focus of qualitative health research is to describe, explore, and explain the health-illness continuum and issues spec...

Health Promotion Practice, 2012

F or health education and promotion specialists who want to contribute to evidence-based research and practice, using quantitative methods is important. However, when quantitative methods are used alone, or used to acquire more depth about a topic, they are not sufficient. To get the complete picture, it is important to understand and be able to conduct qualitative research-research that traditionally does not include numbers and statistical figures, or "count" data.