Structured interview questionnaires containing substantial open comments including a substantial number of responses to open comment items.Īudio recordings and transcripts from focus group sessions.įield notes (notes taken by the researcher while in the field being studied) As with any research project, a clear research objective has to be identified to know which methods should be applied.Īudio recordings and transcripts from in-depth or semi-structured interviews Clearly a quantitative approach would be more appropriate in the last example. Do they wish to study a particular phenomenon in depth (eg, students' perceptions of studying in a different culture)? Or are they more interested in making standardized comparisons and accounting for variance (eg, examining differences in examination grades after changing the way the content of a module is taught). Qualitative research is not appropriate to answer every research question and researchers need to think carefully about their objectives. It is important to choose the most appropriate methods for what is being investigated. 5 We have also performed documentary analysis on curriculum data to compare pharmacist and nurse supplementary prescribing courses in the United Kingdom. Another colleague has interviewed pharmacists and patients regarding their expectations before and after clinic appointments and then observed pharmacist-patient communication in clinics and assessed it using the Calgary Cambridge model in order to develop recommendations for communication skills training. A colleague has interviewed and conducted focus groups with students to explore cultural issues as part of a joint Nottingham-Malaysia pharmacy degree program. We have conducted in-depth interviews with a variety of stakeholders in Malawi, Africa, to explore the issues surrounding pharmacy academic capacity building. We also have used a case study approach using observation of practice and in-depth interviews to explore physiotherapists' views of influences on their leaning in practice.
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For example, at the University of Nottingham, we conducted in-depth interviews with pharmacists to determine their perceptions of continuing professional development and who had influenced their learning. Qualitative research can sometimes provide a better understanding of the nature of educational problems and thus add to insights into teaching and learning in a number of contexts. Complex educational situations demand complex understanding thus, the scope of educational research can be extended by the use of qualitative methods. Like healthcare, education involves complex human interactions that can rarely be studied or explained in simple terms. Increasingly mixed methods research is being carried out where the researcher explicitly combines the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the study. A growing consensus is emerging that sees both qualitative and quantitative approaches as useful to answering research questions and understanding the world. With pharmacy educators who have been trained in the natural and clinical sciences, there is often a tendency to embrace quantitative research, perhaps due to familiarity. 1 It looks at X in terms of how X varies in different circumstances rather than how big is X or how many Xs are there? 2 Textbooks often subdivide research into qualitative and quantitative approaches, furthering the common assumption that there are fundamental differences between the 2 approaches. Qualitative research can be found in all social sciences and in the applied fields that derive from them, for example, research in health services, nursing, and pharmacy. These data relate to the social world and the concepts and behaviors of people within it. Qualitative research involves the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data that are not easily reduced to numbers.
Qualitative research is also useful to both pharmacy practitioners and pharmacy academics who are involved in researching educational issues in both universities and practice and in developing teaching and learning. Qualitative research is useful to policymakers because it often describes the settings in which policies will be implemented. Policy and practice decisions, including those in education, increasingly are informed by findings from qualitative as well as quantitative research.