NURS 3031

Winter 2024
Week 1
Introduction and Overview of
Qualitative Research in Health Care

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  Introduction

Welcome  Course Instructor/Seminar Leader

 Course Format

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Expectations
& Format
 Attendance at IN-PERSON
Lectures (2 hours) and
Seminars (1 hour)
 Completion of all
assignments
 Regular review of Blackboard
course site
 Meet policies and procedures
described in course syllabus
 Follow student code of
conduct

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  Introductory course in qualitative
health research. Content will
include overview of a wide variety
of qualitative research approaches
Course and designs; collection and
analysis of qualitative data;
Description interpretation and dissemination
of results; and critical appraisal of
qualitative, health research.

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  understand the theoretical, practical and
critical applications of qualitative research;
 compare paradigms that guide qualitative
health research;
 examine a range of qualitative methods used

Course in health research, including ethnography,

phenomenology, grounded theory, Narrative
inquiry, case study, and participatory action

Learning 
research;
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of

Outcomes each method and the appropriateness of

each technique for health research;
 describe the types of data collected,
methods of data collection;
 apply basic techniques of qualitative data
analysis;
 explain the process of qualitative data
collection and analysis;
 appraise qualitative health research studies.

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Required Readings

 APA manual (7th ed.)

 Holloway, I., Galvin, K. (2017) Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare
(4th ed.). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
 Lee, P. (2006). Understanding and critiquing qualitative research papers.
Nursing Times, 102(29), 30-32, from
https://cdn.ps.emap.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2006/07/060718Unders
tanding-and-critiquing-qualitative-research-papers-1.pdf
 Russell, C., Gregory, D.M. (2003) Evaluation of qualitative research studies.
Evidence Based Nursing, 6, 36-40, from
http://ebn.bmj.com/content/ebnurs/6/2/36.full.pdf
 Hyett, S., Marjerrison, S., & Gabel, C. (2018). Improving health research
among Indigenous Peoples in Canada. CMAJ, 190(20), E616-21.
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/190/20/E616
 Required readings also include the assigned readings listed on the week-by-
week schedule AND the additional referenced material included in the Power
Point lecture slides and application activities (which may include website
excerpts and/or pages and/or videos).

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 Evaluative methods
Type of Assignment Weighting Due Date
1. In-person Midterm Test 25% Week 5 (Feb 5,
(MC, SATA) 2024)
Duration: 120
minutes
1. Analysis assignment (group 20% Week 7 (Feb 26,
assignment) 2024)
1. Critique of a published 25% Week 9 (March 11,
research paper (In-person, 2024)
MC, SATA, and open-ended Duration: 120
questions) minutes
1. Final Exam (In-person, MC, 30% Exam Period April 8
SATA) – 21, 2024
Duration: 180
minutes

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Students Requiring
Accommodations
 It is Trent University’s intent to create an inclusive learning
environment (including at the George Brown College site). If
a student has a disability and/or health consideration and
feels that they may need accommodations to succeed in this
course, the student should contact the GBC Accessibility
Learning Centre
https://www.georgebrown.ca/current-students/services/acc
essible-learning-services
as soon as possible.
 Academic Accommodations for GBC site students are
organized by the GBC Accessibility Learning Centre
 ONLY students from the Peterborough site taking the
NURS3031 course at the GBC site need to be registered with
Trent University’s Student Accessibility Services:
https://www.trentu.ca/wellness/accessibility/how-register-
sas
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 Let’s get
started
Week 1: Overview of Qualitative Research
Required Readings:
Holloway and Galvin, (2017 & 2024) Chapters 1 & 2

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  “multidisciplinary field of
scientific investigation that studies
Health how social factors, financing
systems, organizational structures
Services and processes, health
technologies, and personal
Research behaviors affect access to health
care, the quality and cost of
health care, and ultimately, our
health and well-being.” (AHRQ,
2014)

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 Ask yourself:

Introduction
to What is qualitative
research?
Qualitative
Research
How does it differ
from quantitative
research?
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 Supports care providers knowledge
of and insight into human
experiences

Provides evidence to inform

Importance decisions, for both patients and care
provides
to
healthcare Theory development

Inform policy and funding

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 Consider what outcome you are
interested in, to help you assess
the “level of evidence”.
Levels of
Evidence For example: Levels of Evidence
for Meaningfulness (JBI, 2013)
in
• 1. Qualitative or mixed-methods
Qualitative systematic review
• 2. Qualitative or mixed-methods
Research synthesis
• 3. Single qualitative study
• 4. Systematic review of expert opinion
• 5. Expert opinion

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  Theoretical framework is generally
predetermined but derives from the
data
 Context-bound; researcher is
context-sensitive
 Researcher ‘immerses’ themselves in
natural setting they wish to explore
Characteristics  Focus is on ‘emic’ perspectives
of Qualitative (perceptions, meanings,
interpretations)
Research  ‘Thick descriptions’ in describing,
analysing and interpreting
 Close relationship between
researcher and participants
 Reflexivity in the research places
the researcher as the ‘main’
research instrument (tool)

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  In qualitative research, data have
‘primacy’, meaning that the data
have priority (theoretical
framework is based on the
incoming data)
 The incoming data may confirm or
contradict existing assumptions or
theory
Primacy of  Inductive approach (from the
specific data to the general – from
Data the data to theory or analytic
description)
 Accounts of reality as seen by
participants is the result
 Not all qualitative inquiry results
in theory generation (e.g.
phenomenology etc. – more on this
later…)

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  Researchers take into account the
context of people’s lives
 Events and actions are studied as
they occur in ‘real-life’ settings
Contextualization  Respect for context AND culture in
which study takes place
 Organizational context, group
membership and other factors are
also important

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  Observing, questioning and listening
are ‘immersion’ strategies employed
(in the ‘real world’)
 QL research can follow progress over
time as perceived by participants
 Researchers question their own
assumptions and act as ‘naïve’
Immersion 
observers
Can take the form of attending
into the meetings with or without
informants, reading documents,
Setting observing interactions in the setting
etc.
 Means listening to people and
attempting to see the world as they
see it
 Macro or Micro (e.g., hospital
unit, home, reception area,
community, etc.)

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  Exploring the ‘insiders’ view’ rather than
imposing own framework that might distort
from participants’ views
 Individuals are best placed to describe
situations and feelings in their own words
 Seeking to understand the process by which
participants make sense of their own
behaviour, and rules that govern their
actions

The Emic  Approach requires ‘empathetic

understanding’

Perspective
 Meaning of phenomena is described or
interpreted
 ‘Informants’, ‘participants’ rather than
‘subjects’
 Researcher’s view (analytical and more
abstract interpretation and description)
represents the ‘etic perspectives) – the
‘outsider’s view’
 Often there is a back and forth
movement between the emic and etic
perspectives

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  Detailed description of participants’
experiences (going beyond the
surface)
 Uncovering feelings, meanings and
meanings of their actions
 Develops from the data and the
context
 Describing the setting and the
Thick people in it
 Giving visual pictures of the
Description setting, events and situations
 Including verbatim narratives
 “deep, dense, detailed accounts
of problematic experiences…It
presents detail, context, emotion
and the webs of social
relationship that join persons to
one another” (Denzin, 1989;83, as
cited in Holloway & Galvin, 2017
p. 7; 2024 p.8)
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  Non-judgemental stance
 Built on mutual trust
 Continuous process
The research  Participants have more power in
relationship guiding towards what is important
to them
 Shifting boundaries between
researcher and participants

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  “[…] monitor and become aware of their
personal perspectives and feelings”
(Singh & Thirsk, 2022, p. 176) See also p.
343; see also Holloway & Galvin, 2017, p.
9 ; 2024 p.10)
 Critical reflection during the research
process
 Conscious attempt to acknowledge own
involvement in the study
 A form of self-monitoring
Reflexivity  Critical subjectivity (“adopting a critical
stance to oneself as a researcher”
Holloway & Galvin, 2017 p. 9; 2024 p.10)
 Introspection
 Intersubjective Reflection
 Mutual collaboration
 Social critique
 Discursive Deconstruction

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General “risks” and cautions
with Qualitative Research
 Lack of methodological knowledge
 Drowning in data
 Methodolatry
 Romanticism and emotionalism
 Method slurring

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The Role of
the  Non-judgmental

Researcher 


Listen to become a learner
Direct involvement with
in participants

Qualitative  Insider vs outsider

Research

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Video entitled:
Overview of
Qualitative
Research Methods
Watch up to the 6-minute mar
k

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Research
Paradigms
 A way of looking at the
world
 Theoretical ideas or
set of principles that
guide the research
 Differences between
paradigms often
categorized by:
 Ontology – what can
be said to exist?
 Epistemology – what
is knowledge?

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 Positivism Post-positivism Interpretivism Critical theory
(sometimes
referred to as
‘constructivism’)
Ontology Reality is static and fixed; the world is ordered by
an overarching “objective truth”
Reality is subjective
and changing, no
Reality based on power
and identity struggles;
What is the nature of
“ultimate truth” reality may be
reality?
objective but truth is
continually contested
by competing groups

Epistemology Reality is objective ;

knowledge can be
Reality can only be
approximated (a
Multiple, diverse
interpretations of
Reality known through
study of social
What counts as
neutral and value-free “probably truth”); reality; Knowledge is structure; knowledge is
knowledge?
knowledge constructed subjective co-constructed through
through research and individuals and groups,
statistics and can be changed
through research

Methodology To discover what exists

through prediction and
Scientific method –
deductive methods and
Focus on
understanding; used
Focus on emancipation;
seeks representation of
What is the process of
control; theory is falsification of inductive reasoning; diverse and under-
research?
established hypotheses important; meaning constructed in represented views;
deductively; scientific quantitative and researcher-participant research used to
method to develop qualitative methods interaction in natural envision how things can
abstract laws and to environment; change for the better;
predict patterns; qualitative methods uses both qualitative
quantitative methods and quantitative
methods

Adapted from: Bunniss & Kelly (2010), Creswell (2012)

 Knowledge generation
Similarities
 Gathering of evidence and analysis
 Informed and consenting participants
between
 Limitations paradigms

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Seminar 1:
individual  Complete the worksheet
on the key differences
homework between QN and QL
research
Differences  Use your class notes for
today and the textbook
b/t Qual and readings to add as many
Quant details as possible

Research

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