Nursing Research NRCM- 0111
that is consistent with the research topic.
Qualitative Research
Process
➢ Qualitative studies progression is
closer to a circle than to a straight line.
➢ Qualitative researchers are continually
examining and interpreting data and
making decisions about how to
proceed based on what has already
been discovered
Characteristics
➢ Flexible approach to the collection and
analysis of data
➢ It is impossible to define the flow of
activities precisely; the flow varies
from one study to another, and
researchers themselves do not know
ahead of time exactly how the study
will unfold.
➢ It may not pose refined research
questions at the outset.
Phase 1: Conceptualizing and Planning
a Qualitative Study
❖ Step 1: Identifying the Research
Problem
Qualitative researchers usually begin with a
broad topic area, often focusing on an aspect
of a topic that is poorly understood and about
which little is known.
❖ Step 2: Doing a Literature Review
Qualitative researchers do not all agree
about the value of doing an upfront literature
review. Some believe that researchers should
not consult the literature before collecting
data.
● Review of Literature
Others believe that researchers should
conduct at least a brief literature
review at the outset. In any case,
qualitative researchers typically find a
relatively small body of relevant
previous work because of the type of
questions they ask.
❖ Step 3: Selecting and Gaining
Entrée into Research Sites
Qualitative researchers must identify a site
➔ For example, if the topic is the health
beliefs of the urban poor, an inner-city
neighborhood with a concentration of
low-income residents must be
identified.
Gaining entrée typically involves negotiations
with gatekeepers who have the authority to
permit entry into their world.
❖ Step 4: Developing an Overall
Approach
➔ Quantitative researchers do not collect
data before finalizing the research
design.
➔ Qualitative researchers use an
emergent design, a design that
emerges during the course of data
collection.
➔ Certain design features are guided by
the study’s qualitative tradition, but
qualitative studies rarely have rigidly
structured designs that prohibit
changes while in the field.
❖ Step 5: Addressing Ethical Issues
Qualitative researchers, like quantitative
researchers, must also develop plans for
addressing ethical issues.
➔ There are special concerns in
qualitative studies because of the
more intimate nature of the
relationship that typically develops
between researchers and study
participants.
● Sampling
The sampling decisions are guided by
the data themselves.Many qualitative
researchers use the principle of
saturation, which occurs when themes
and categories in the data become
repetitive and redundant, such that no
new information can be gleaned by
further data collection.
Phase 2: Conducting the Study and purposeful as the theory
emerges
➢ In qualitative studies, the tasks of
❖ Concept Development
sampling, data collection, data
Concept development and verification shape
analysis, and interpretation typically
the sampling process as a conceptualization
take place iteratively.
or theory develops, the researcher seeks
➢ Qualitative researchers begin by
participants who can confirm and enrich the
talking with or observing people who
theoretic understandings, as well as
have first-hand experience with the
participants who can potentially challenge
phenomenon under study.
them and lead to further theoretic insight.
➢ The discussions and observations are
loosely structured, allowing
participants to express a full range of
beliefs, feelings, and behaviors.
❖ Data Collection
Qualitative researchers are the main data
collection instrument and must take steps to
demonstrate the trustworthiness of the data
while in the field.
➢ The central feature of these efforts is
to confirm that the findings accurately
reflect the experiences and viewpoints
of participants, rather than
researchers’ perceptions.
➢ One confirmatory activity, for example,
involves going back to participants and
sharing preliminary interpretations with
them so that they can evaluate
whether the researcher’s thematic
analysis is consistent with their
experiences.
❖ Analysis
➢ Analysis and interpretation are
ongoing, concurrent activities that
guide choices about the kinds of
people to question next and the types
of question to ask or observations to
make.
➢ The actual process of data analysis
involves clustering together related
types of narrative information into a
coherent scheme.
➔ As analysis and interpretation
progress, researchers begin to
identify themes and categories,
which are used to build a rich
description or theory of the
phenomenon.
➔ The kinds of data obtained
become increasingly focused