Qualitative Research in Health Care

Introduction: Aim and readership

Part 1: Starting out

Is there an epistemology for qualitative research?
Ethical issues in qualitative health research

Part 2: Collecting data

Interviewing
Focus group research: using group dynamics to explore perceptions, experiences and understandings
Observing method: recognizing the significance of belief, discipline, position and documentation in observational studies

Part 3: Choosing an approach

The status of method: flexibility, consistency and coherence
Clarifying the life-world: descriptive phenomenology
Hermeneutic phenomenology: the science of interpretation of texts
Grounded theory: the methodology
Ethnographic exploration: participation and meaning in everyday life
Narrative analysis: exploring the whats And hows of personal stories
Action research for changing and improving practice
Navigating a qualitative course in programme evaluation
Engaging feminist thought in research: a participatory approach
Qualitative writing

Conclusion: after completion

Glossary of main terms
Index

This book is a comprehensive guide to selecting approaches and carrying out qualitative research. Rather than being prescriptive, it provides information on various data collection procedures and how to make decisions about specific qualitative approaches. Its aim is to extend researchers’ understanding of the participants in research, be they patients, peers or students, and to improve clinical practice on the basis of evidence from qualitative studies. Each chapter is illustrated with examples of research projects.

Topics discussed include:

• The nature of qualitative research
• The selection of a specific qualitative research approach
• The collection and analysis of qualitative data
• Writing up qualitative research

Written by contributors who are academics and/or practitioners from a variety of health professions and disciplines, Qualitative Research in Health Care is key reading for all health professionals, academic and clinical, who are involved in research work, as well as advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in health studies.

Contributors: Mark Avis, Rosalind Bluff, Dawn Freshwater, Kathleen Galvin, Immy Holloway, Ron Iphofen, Jenny Kitzinger, Debbie Kralik, John Larsen, Frances Rapport, Siobhan Sharkey, Andrew Sparkes, Clare Taylor, Les Todres, Stephen Wallace.