Qualitative Research Methods for Health Professionals

Qualitative research methods assess the intangible factors that shape individual experience and perception, and provide a rich textual description of the subject of interest, according to Family Health International. For health professionals, qualitative methods offer an effective means of better understanding different dimensions of health, illness and care. Qualitative research consists a diverse range of techniques for obtaining and assessing data; however, there are several methods that are most common in professional health research.

Interviews

• Interviews can be either structured or unstructured. While a structured interview proceeds with a set of formal questions, an unstructured, or open-ended interview allows both the researcher and subject to improvise and expand on a given topic as needed. In health research, interviews allow investigators to collect targeted information that generally cannot be obtained through surveys or questionnaires. Interviews are commonly used in research aimed at collecting subjective materials, such as attitudes and beliefs.

Ethnography

• Also known as participant-observation research, ethnography is a powerful methodological tool employed widely in health research. Ethnography requires a sustained interaction between the researcher and subject, a relationship that often takes months, if not years to develop. The objective of ethnography is to elicit the subtle components of a situation, such as emotions, cultural assumptions and experiences of power and discrimination. In health research, ethnography can provide investigators with a better understanding of the personal issues surrounding disease and its treatment. Ethnography is useful in understanding the contradictions between statements and actions, and underscores the method's strength in breaking down some of the customary boundaries between the investigator and the subject.

Life History

• A life history approach to qualitative research allows health professionals to obtain a better understanding of how a disease or exposure has taken shape over the course of a person's life. This method often accompanies epidemiological research, which tracks the spread of illness. A life history approach can be particularly useful for understanding compound illnesses and for researchers interested in how a particular health condition affects different dimensions of personal and social life.

Case Study

• Case studies are a common method of qualitative research used most frequently to compare different instances of a particular condition. While life histories examine the whole course of a subject's lifespan, case studies tend to focus more on a bounded time frame. This method is used most frequently by mental health professionals, but is also employed by physicians and public health researchers. Conducting case study-based research requires that investigators compile and analyze a series of cases in order to identify what sorts of themes or variations are associated with a given condition.

Mixed Method

• The most common form of health research employs a combination of methods, both qualitative and quantitative, so as to collect the richest and most descriptive data sample. Using a combined or mixed method approach also allows researchers to better validate their findings.